Hr^l 



.1 









id^CLELLAN: 



FROM 



BALL'S BLUFF TO ANTIETAM. 



By G-EOKG-E WILKES, 

Editor of "WILKES' SPIRIT OF THE TIMES, 

201 WILLIAM STRE;ET, NEW YORK. 



-♦♦« ♦ «» ^ 








NEW YORK: 

SINCLAIR TOUSEY, Wholesale Agent, 

No. 121 NASSAU STREET. 

1863. 







Pros.? of Wyukoop, Halloubcck & Thomas, 113 Fultou St., N. Y. 




Glass _^i-^»:] 

Book MaAYJgq 



m 

Ml 



M^CLELLAN: 



iprom: 



B A L L'S BLUFF 



TO 



AN^TIETAM. 



/ 

By G-EORGE WILKES, 

Editor of "'WIJL.KEIS' SFIRIT OF THE TIMIES," 

201 WnjJAM STREET, NEW YORK. 



NEW YORK: 
SINCLAIR TOUSEY, Who 1 e s al e- Agent , 

No. lai NASSAU STREET. 
1863. 






PRESS OF WYNKOOP, HALLENBEX!K & THOMAS, 
No. 113 Fulton street, New York. 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



The following articles are portions of a series which appeared originally 
in Winces' Spirit of the Times, and which were devoted to the review of 
General MoClellan and his battles, from the time of the commencement of 
his career at Ball's Bluff, down to what Mr. Wilkes has justly characterized 
as " the unspeakably disgraceful battle of Antietam." The campaign in 
Western Virginia, which at most was but a series of skirmishes (and which, 
notwithstanding its boasted battles, and pompous bulletins, summed up a loss 
of merely forty killed and two hundred wounded), was early, credited by 
Mr. Wilkes to Rosecrans; and this judgmentwas all the more strikingly 
sustained by the subsequent proofs that, while MoOleixan could never be 
induced to venture into battle, Roseorans was always present where his 
soldiers were engaged, and at Murfreesboro' embarked his fortunes continually 
in the very outer wave of action. 

It is worthy of observation, that Mr. Wilkes was, at the outset of the war, 
one of those writers who entered most warmly into the advocacy of MoClel- 
lan, and was only detached from his support when he saw him refuse, for 
seven months, to attack the rebels at Manassas, though he had over two hun- 
dred thousand troops, and could have found them at the mere distance of a 
morning's march. The subsequent turning of his back-upon these retreating 
rebels, in order that he might make a roundabout voyage to the Peninsula, and 
thus give them time to reinforce at Richmond, at once revealed either that he 
was devoid of courage or capacity, or that his real intentions were not exhibited 
upon the surface. It was under these irresistible convictions that Mr. Wilkes 
began to criticise McClellan's movements, and in placing a few of his articles 
before the public, in connected form, it is not out of place to state, that the 
universal verdict of the country has attributed more influence to them in 



removing MoOlkllan from command, than all other pressures put together. 
After appearing in the Sinrit^ they were widely reproduced in other news- 
papers of the North and West, and thus they developed that indignant public 
sentiment without which the President (misled by the spurious applause of the 
Tory organs) would scarcely have felt warranted in doing his duty in the 
premises. The article headed "MoClellan inside and out," and which is 
printed as the second of this compilation, was attended with the most re- 
markable success of all. Notwithstanding its great length, it was republished 
in all quarters of the country, and its argument has generally been regarded 
as the blow which struck the bogus military idol from its pedestal. It is 
only necessary to say, in explanation of its opening paragraph, that it was 
especially provoked by the action of two brigadiers whom MoClbllan had 
sent to New York to stimulate the raising of recruits, and who, while glorify- 
ing Little Mao as a miraculous genius, imprudently denounced all adverse 
criticism of their idol, as springing either from " ignorance or from traitorous 
motives." S. T 



PHILOSOPHY OF IDOLATKY. 



IS McCLELLAN A HERO? 

New Yoek, July 9, 1862, ) 

Office of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

The vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the human miad are a constant puzzle 
to philosopliers. They observe the people of one age overturning the dearest 
theories of another, and not unfrequently behold them relapsing into follies 
which an intervening generation had repudiated with the most logical con- 
tempt. Casting our eyes over the long spectacle of wrecked ideas which 
strew the heaving billows of tlie past, it would seem almost as if Reason were 
a thing of chance ; and that mankind, hopelessly involved in the meshes of its 
own imperfections, instinctively prefers to wallow in congenial error, to being 
strained by the erectness and higher activities of Sense. 

The memory of the mass, governed by this principle, reverts with a sort 
of languid pity to those patriarchal times, when communities would meet to- 
gether in a plain and choose the tallest man among them for their governor. 
Next it yields its admiration for that civilized advancement which transferred 
the earlier homage, to the ambitious brov/s of the most wholesale murderer in 
the nation ; and finally, with an equally inconsistent change of fancy, settles 
with complacency upon the picture of millions, bending in submissive awe be- 
fore the sceptre of a woman, or the dominion of a skirted priest. 

The human mind is unfortunately so constructed that it may become the 
prey of any passion. There is no falsehood so startling, no theory so repug- 
nant, no imposition so extreme, that it may not fyid shallow waters in the 
mind for its reception, and retentive harbors of belief. In turn, men have 
worshiped at the shrine of the toad, the fox, the serpent, the bull, and even 
the dripping tiger. In turn, again, there have been idolaters who have abased 
themselves before hideous shapes of wood, who have adored the elements, 
who have made sacrifices to the sun and stars, and there have been, also, 
even those who, disdaining the celestial competition, have turned their backs 
upon the entire Pantheon, and founded a worship to " The Unknown God." 
Nay, in our own times we are the slaves of images, and we can hardly plume 
ourselves in pride of reason, over the judgment of the heathen, when we 
find leading intellects among us, still utterly at war, amid a hundred vital 
contradictions of the Church. The impostures of Mahomet, the delusions of 
the veiled Prophet, and the assumed divinity of the Grand Lama, have been 
slavishly imitated by Christian civilization, in the case of John of Leyden, 
of the New York Matthias, of Joe Smith, and of Brigham Young, the present 
Mahound of the West. History has repeated itself in the same way in regard 
to rulers ; and it frequently renews its lessons of the transient fame of the 
unworthy, by dropping them from the end of the pipe-stem where they had 
pranced, to the gross level of unrelieved contempt. Merit, alone, can stand 
the test of time ; and charlatans and humbugs, though tolerated for a season, 
are invariably detected by the people, and driven off the public grounds. 

There are many curious features in this philosophy of popularity, but none 
more singular than the fact, that nearly all sudden reputations will prove to 
have been built upon an inverse ratio of merit ; while substantial characters 



ever wear the continuous inspection marks of years. There is something, 
however, so delightful in delusion, and admiration makes so light a draft 
upon the thought, that most persons take to it with a powerful relish, and 
once a hurrah is afoot, the inclination to join in takes like an epidemic. 
Man is an imitative animal ; a yawn will go round an audience through a 
mere sympathy of the jaws, and when we have beheld courts and juries per- 
verted from their judgments by the very magnetism of a surrounding sentiment, 
and seen law-loving communities trample the statutes under foot — when, 
stranger Jstill, we have seen whole nations take a baboon, or a reptile, for 
their deity, or glorify some monarch for a conqueror who dared not look upon 
a sword, it is not so surprising that the present generation should be willing 
to swallow a hero who might have been cut out of a turnip, or, in the per- 
plexities of public iniidelity, turn to the worship of an unknown God. 

In matters of adoration, the zealot relies blindly on the theme ; he disdains 
to argue except with those ardent in his own persuasion, and sternly represses 
all inclination to investigate, as an unpardonable imputa^on on his faith. So 
for from reasoning, therefore, he will not even read, and locking up what 
intellect he has, he, with a stubborn loyalty, regards as enemies all who would 
question his opinions. It is the old phenomenon repeated, of dogged ignorance 
struggling against revelation ; and thus the world wears along, progressing 
only inch by inch, over the obstacles of its own passions, and placing itself, 
through its ready partialities and prejudices, completely at the mercy of every 
schemer who understands the keys. 

We fancy that one of these singular infatuations is prevailing now. Our 
society, struck from its balance, disturbed in its ideas, bewildered by its dan- 
ger, and almost discouraged by the absence of all genius from its counsels, has 
followed the instincts which belong to ignorance, and, in an unlucky moment, 
anchored its hopes upon an unknown leader, on the bare warrant of his own 
pretensions. The careless observer, while studying the man, might permit 
himself, through a love of country, to rejoice at the weaknesses of character 
which seem guarantees against a dangerous ambition ; but in these defects, 
and in that want of promptitude and courage which result in iinbecility, lie 
the concentration of all danger. The crafty and unprincipled may easily pos- 
sess a weak man; and once he has lent himself to oblique counsels, the very 
best qualities that he possesses — those qualities that express faithfulness to 
friendship and loyalty to personal alliances, are made the auxiliaries of the 
darkest schemes. 

The field for the analysis is clear. There were no special obstructions in 
McClellan's path to glory. Everybody contributed their aid to make him a 
great man. The President lifted him to the most dazzling authority in the 
nation; the universal voice accorded him the qualities of Oaisar; a lavish 
country placed incomparable and astounding legions in his hands, and the 
whole world looked on to see this child of genius, launch his quintupled 
thunders upon his meagre and cowering game. 

There was no difficulty in the Young Chieftain getting to his foe, for they 
frequently challenged him within five miles of his lines; there was no reason 
why he should dread the mere handful of the enemy, for their troops were 
just as inexperienced as ours ; but still the New Napoleon would not fight, 
and, with a strange fortitude to insult, endured the rebel flag under his nose, 
and a blockade of the Capitol, during a period of five marching months, with- 
out the least sign of irritation. Everybody wondered what could be his plan, 
but still they did not question his abiUty ; and even half-misgiving minds kept 
hurrahing for him to their neighbors, like the schoolboy in the church-yard, 
to sustain their own waning faith. We, among the rest, suspecting all objec- 
tion to him as disloyal, helped to domineer down the grumblers, and insisted, 



7« 

that, in due time, his intentions would be wisely developed to the nation. But 
we never once suspected (nor, did the public who so faithfully supported 
him) that his plan was to let the insignificant forces of the enemy retire 
without harm, until, with a generous inversion of the art of war, he could 
seek him in his lair, and accept the odds against himself. This was not the 
practice of the Old Napoleon ; but the reputation of our unfledged chieftain 
was so high, it was expected he would eclipse all previous reputations, and 
save the country by some mysterious military spell. The allowed retreat of 
the enemy from Manassas, however, shook the faith of many a worshiper, 
and scores of men of sound capacity, who, in the ardor of a trusting patriot- 
ism, had till now, shirked the task of thought, openly condemned the insen- 
sibility of our legions as disgraceful. Still our Young Napoleon was as 
Imperturbable as the Sphinx, and the country was obliged to find meagre 
solace, in the rather dubious felicitation, that General McClellan was unoubt- 
edly "a child of genius," as he .concealed his plans with profound secrecy 
from every one. We bear in mind, that the same compliment was frequently 
lavished upon General William Walker, of Nicaraguan fame ; but we also bear 
in mind, that what was mistaken in the filibuster chief for profundity, and 
great reserve, was really vacuity, and that he never had a plan, or could com- 
prehend to-day what would be good for him to do to-morrow. He, too, was 
"a child of genius," and there was a time, when the whole world occasionally 
showed a disposition to knock oft' work, in order to accept the little gray-eyed 
man of destiny for a historical Colossus. Like those of this class of heroes, 
however, he depended rather too much on destiny, and probably imagined 
that he had but to make an incantation with the six cuts of the sword, pre- 
vious to jumping into bed at night, to have responsive destiny seize him by 
the slack of the trowsers, and make a Napoleon of him in the morning. H© 
once held Granada with fifteen hundred men, and had steamers regularly 
bringing him recruits from both sides of the continent, every fortnight, but he 
throttled the transit lines to extort a subsidy, and having thus deprived him- 
self of resources, declared war against all Central America. The result was, 
that his fine troops were soon played away against a lot of negroes and half 
breeds, and the poor creature fell below the level of derision. But compari- 
sons are odious. 

Months still elapsed after the evacuation of Manassas, with our Eastern 
army rusting in inaction, while the West was laying up glory in store for fu- 
ture political dominion, by victory upon victory of the most brilliant charac- 
ter. Our Young Napoleon was the only general who had contributed no 
triumph to the country, and who gave his troops no chance to vindicate the 
equal valor of their section. At length, between the heroic respirations of 
the West, common attention became riveted upon McClellan, and he was 
forced to march. 

Instead, however, of moving upon Riclimond by the direct path, en 
masse, covering Washington and employing his whole army as he went, he 
left nineteen thousand and twenty -two troops to defend the capital, and took 
one hundred and fifty-eight thousand with him, to sea, at an expense of 
fifty millions, and grouped them under his own banner in the Peninsula. 
Here was a power fit for anything, if rightly wielded, and capable, ac- 
cording to his own pompous promise, of "driving the insolent enemy to 
the wall." But lo, in a few short weeks, we behold this army, with our Csesar 
at its head, shattered, decimated, nay, reduced of its numbers by full seventy 
thousand, with the remainder virtually captives in their lines. 

If these are facts, then Osesar is.a failure ; and the man who refuses to ex- 
ercise his reason on tlie subject, is unfit to be a citizen. Fortunately, the 
Government, which never withheld from him a single soldier, nor dictated 



8^' 

to him a single plan, but which has suffered greatly from the slander of those 
who thought him good timber for a President, has already publicly recognized 
his incapacity, and sent for General Halleck to supplant him. The maxim 
"better late than never" comes to our consolation at this crisis, and we hope 
to see some speedy action taken to save the remainder of tlie proud legions 
which our Marlborough has stranded in the mud near Turkey Bend. If he, 
and they, cannot be safely extricated from their present position, Pope had 
better be sent down, in a direct road upon the rebel stronghold, with suffi- 
cient force to make a demonstration that will enable the beleaguered Alex- 
ander to come out and co-operate with the attacking and directing force. But 
no more troops should be sent to the Peninsula, unless we wish to consign 
them to a certain ruin ; and above all things, McOlellan should be required to 
act subordinate to the orders of the chief of the relieving army. Give him 
scope again, and the employment of the spade Avill once more set aside the 
use of arms, and the settlement of the country be postponed, until earth shall 
supersede the use of brains. Whether Pope be the proper man to rescue 
Pompey, we, who have so burned our fingers with undue eulogium, hardly 
dare assert ; but we know he has acted like an intelligent commander in the 
"West, and that credits him with a broad margin for reliance. As for McClel- 
lan (who, to judge by his year of leadership, is perfectly capable of playing 
away Europe against Nova Scotia, if permitted to control the game), he must 
consent to be saved in any way he can, and then to be retired to some post, 
where, under good direction, his limited talents as an expert, maybe rendered 
serviceable to the country. This has been military practice and alternative 
since the days of Pyrrhus down to the times of Oanrobert, McDowell and Lo- 
rencez ; and there is no reason why the chieftain, whose sole achievement has 
been to manipulate an invading force of nearly a quarter of a million out of 
practical existence, and whose last masterly exploit was to abandon thousands 
of his stricken, pleading soldiers to perish miserably in their tracks, should 
be exempted from the wholesome rigor of their rule. 



McCLELLAN INSIDE AND OUT. 



" Mene, mene, tekel upharsin." 



New York, August 4, 1862. ) 

Office of "Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

The strategy of the dazzling military genius who led his troops into the 
marshes of the Chickahominy, only to run them out so fast that he left his 
moaning wounded and his dead behind, has taken a new direction. Not hav- 
ing driven the enemy "to the wall " or conquered Kichmond, as he promised, 
he now meditates a march against New York, and has sent a brace of orator- 
ical brigadiers, to straighten public sentiment, and teach us how to estimate 
true glory. "We were not aware he was so hard pushed by criticism ; but we 
have no doubt that he will be just as successfulin this last effort, as h© was in 
his superb operations on the James. 

The Commissioners he sends us are among the profoundest soldiers of the 
age, and having had the full experience of a year in arms, are thoroughly quali- 
fied, not only to declare the degrees of warlike merit, but chartered to de- 
nounce all adverse question of their Young Napoleon, as proceeding "either 



from ignorance or traitorous motives." It is, perhaps, not a matter of much 
significance, that these veteran disciples of Marlborough and Vauban depend 
upon the countenance of Young Napoleon for their promotion; or, perhaps, of 

moment, that General ,* (to whom we especially refer) is alleged to have 

charge of the hard task of steering him through his troubles ; for these offsets 
to their credit are entirely eclipsed, and the defense of Napoleon made perfect, 
by the shrewd and powerful proofs presented in his behalf in such convincing 
terms as " noble leader " — "gallant, indomitable, and unconquerable chief- 
tain," and " glorious Little Mac !" 

There is a saying, however, that even the best actors on the stage are the 
very worst judges of the play ; and on the strength of that great truth we 
will, while granting the sincerity of these gentlemen, take the liberty of again 
looking behind the curtain, and of making a diagnosis of the principal per- 
former. 

To begin, then, at the beginning, for even the prologue of a mighty 
tragedy is of moment, we will glance at one or two of oar hero's antecedents 
which bear upon the action. 

George B. McClellan was born in a Free State, and after receiving his educa- 
tion at West Point, embarked upon the world with a lieutenantcy. He, for 
a longtime, preferred to take up his residence in the South, and soon became 
conspicuously known as a man of southern proclivities and feelings. While 
living in New Orleans, he was noted for his intimate companionship with 
Beauregard, and when that worthy ran » for Mayor, and built an earthwork 
and temporary barricade to resist a threatened assault by his opponents, he 
placed his trusty friend McCellan in charge of the redoubt. 

At an early period, we find McClellan deeply identified with southern 
filibustering schemes, and finally trace him to a prominent command in the 
Lone Star Association. The objects of that organization were, notoriously, 
the expansion and perpetuation of American slavery, by the forcible con- 
quest of Cuba and its annexation to the South ; and it is plain that McClellan, 
from his intimate intercourse with the leaders of the movement, was fully 
versed in all the secret aims of the conspiracy. The Philadelphia Daily 
27ews, of July 28, thus briefly states the leading features of the movement : 

" General Quitman, of Mississippi, was chosen Generallissimo. The five 
oflBcers next in rank to him were also to be Americans, and oflicers of the 
regular army. To General Quitman was confided the delicate duty, not of 
selecting, but of purchasing, the swords and hearts of these. 

" He was a man of address. The offer was liberal, the terras being a 
cash payment of ten thousand dollars, with Cuban contingencies to each, 
and he succeeded in completing contracts with Albert Sidney Johnson, 
Gustavus W. Smith, Mansfield Lovell, J. K. Duncan, and George B. 
McClellan. 

" Smith and Lovell received their money, resigned from the army, and 
entered upon their new duties. But before the final arrangements were con- 
summated with our future General-in-Chief, Marcy, then Secretary of State, 
in violation of the plighted faith of President Pierce (who was himself a 
filibuster) directed the Collector of the Port of Mobile to seize and detain 
the two vessels laden with arms and munitions of war, then lying in that 
port. His subsequent acts prevented the expedition. The question of 
Lieutenant McClellan's resignation was held in abeyance some days, when 
the inducements to it were necessarily withdrawn." 

The editor of the News might also have stated, in this connection, that, 

♦This name is left blank because the officer to whom it alludes is one of the most loyal and able 
in the army, and has by this time, like the writer, doubtless entirely changed his opinions of the 
military abilities of Little Mac. 



10 

previous to these nefarious "'Lone Star " movements, McClellan had been 
stealtliily dispatched to Cuba by Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, on 
a mission of military observation, as the secret service records of tlie Govern- 
ment undoubtedly will show. 

The failure of the Lone Star Expedition left our young hero without any 
definite prospects, but his good fortune kept Jefferson Davis at the head of 
the "War Department, and that excellent man having always regarded Mc- 
Clellan witli exceeding favor, and wishing to reward him, probably, for his 
Bympathies witli the South, promoted him to be a captain of infantry, and 
then raised him to the dazzling station of Chief of tlie Commission of Ob- 
servation which represented tlie army of, the United States before Sebas- 
topol. True to these souvenirs^ and the tendencies which they created, he, 
after his return, united himself with the Breckenridge Democracy, the plot 
of which, on the part, at least, of its southern engineers, was to eitlier throw 
the election to the "House," or, by the return of Lincoln to the Presidency, 
to seize the opportunity for revolution. 

Now, these antecedents, though they do not affect with absolute suspicion 
the firmness of McClellan's loyalty, furnish us the cue to the problem which for 
along time bewildered us in the extreme; and we can now understand the 
secret of that wondrous approbation with which the high appointment of the 
young captain was received by southern generals and Dixie journals. The 
veil was lifted, too, from what had puzzled us the most, and that was, the 
miraculous unanimity with which every man of secession principles and 
doubtful loyalty among us, agreed upon his transcendent talents as a chieftain. 
Loyal citizens would occasionally differ on his merits; but if a man ever so . 
lightly tinged with " Southern rights" would come in hearing, the peace patriot 
would be sure to fly into a rage, look threateningly at the critic, as if he more 
than suspected him to be an Abolitionist, and swear that everybody was in a 
conspiracy to ruin poor Little Mac! It is true that hundreds of loyal, well- 
meaning men honestly did the same thing; but while there were some among 
them who did not, the secessionists adored and lauded him without exception. 
Throughout the South the same phenomenon was visible, and we would con- 
tinually hear the Confederate journals saying, that the Yankees had but one 
great general, and the Abolitionists were trying to ruin Mm ! 

The distinguished object of such singular laudation could hardly be insen- 
sible to its effects. Human nature is governed by a few simple laws. We 
love those who love us, and it is i-epugnant to all good feeling to injure and 
despitefully use those who speak well of us. By the very excellence of his 
nature, therefore, McClellan was emasculated of a great portion of that vigor 
and devil which is the first requirement'of afighting general, and he must have 
painfully felt, in his moments of self-examination, that it was his misfortune 
to be so universally appreciated. There was one course, however, that was 
still open to him, and which would obviate the stern necessity of shooting off 
"Our Southern Brethren's" heads, and arms, and legs, A course, too, which, 
in the end, might be acquiesced in by Jeff. Davis himself, and give no unap- 
peasable offense, even to Beauregard, or his confrerers of the Lone Star Ex- 
pedition. 

This was a great country — it had great institutions and great oceans on 
either side of it. The American eagle ought to flap his wings over the entire 
continent, for the benefit of millions yet unborn. It was a shame for hrothers 
to be fighting in this way about trifling points of dift'erence, and the thing 
must be " fixed up." He (McClellan) was just the man to do it. In the 
South, he was Hannibal, in the North, Caesar and Napoleon together; and 
he might, therefore, under the scope of his great place, so manage his cam- 
paign, as to drive the enemy into a convention, instead of into battle a Vout- 



u 

ranee. He was backed by the resources of a great country; he felt that he 
could demonstrate his superiority to his confederate rivals as a soldier to 
the same extent he had outstripped them as a student in the Academy, and, 
when at last, by bloodless strategy he should have them cornered, he would 
signify to them that they had better lay down their arms, be good and loyal 
citizens again, and he would arrange matters so that everything " would be 
lovely'' and they would have all their "rights." 

"VVe do not positively assume this theory in his favor, but it is entirely con- 
sistent with the idea of loyalty; and, to say the truth, it is the best we have. 
And, if perchance we are correct, we can almost imagine the broad and 
humane expression wliich spread over his benevolent countenance as this 
superb idea irradiated and relieved the previously agitated depths of his philo- 
sophic mind. In the dim vista of the future, he might behold himself toga'd 
on a pedestal, crowned with the olive as well as with the laurel, and continu- 
ally alluded to by poetic orators as the second "Father of his Country.'' 

We find much to harmonize with tliis idea. His dehut was made with the 
announcement that we would carry on the war with as little loss of life as 
possible, and we have seen that, though the enemy, in vastly inferior numbers, 
kept thrusting the rebel flag under his nose at Fairfax Court House; nay, at 
Munson's Hill for several months, he would not give our "Southern brethren" 
battle. They even blockaded the Potomac on him ; nay, with one-third of 
his numbers, they reduced him to a state of siege, and made daring raids upon 
his lines from day to day; but the hour had not come to strike the crushing 
blow (perhaps to needlessly exasperate the feelings of both sides), and he bore 
the taunts and humiliations of his position with wondrous fortitude. What 
probably was the most embarrassing part of his position, was the restless 
chafing of the two hundred thousand bayonets at his back, for an advance ; 
and the only consolation that could possibly have supported himin his trying 
situation was the consciousness that his motives were correct, and that his 
plan would bring the country out all right in the end. 

He was rather unlucky though, for the war was terribly exasperated in 
the West by Halleck, Foote, Grant, Pope, Mitchell, Wallace, Curtis, and Sigel ; 
and in the South-west by that rare old Governor, Ben Butler, Farragut, and 
Porter; and in the South-east byBurnside, Sherman, and Dupont. The East, 
where we had the most troops and tlie greatest general, was the place where 
nothing was done at all. 

It was something to our Young ISTapoIeon, nevertheless, that the People 
kept gazing npon him in a sort of admiring trance, and, though they could not 
by any means penetrate his plans, they hurrahed for his amazing silence and 
inaction, and offered to "bet their lives (as fifty thousand did, and lost them) 
that Little Mac wasn't keeping so still for nothing, and that, by-and-by, he 
would come out all right." 

At length. Little Mac did move ; and, on his own judgment, he chose the 
route to Richmond, by the way of the Peninsula. It was not a very direct 
road, for it obliged him to embark and debark a vast army, and make a long 
trip by sea — a process that is always somewhat demoralizing to troops, and 
always very filthy. The cost of the job was worth, in cash, probably some 
fifty millions — a sum for which he could have built ten railways, and defended 
them as they went, from Washington to within ten miles of Richmond. 

The choice of route was therefore thought to be a little singular, and 
some querulous civilians likewise thought it strange, that having so long 
refused the opportunity to strike the enemy at Manassas, with quadrupled 
numbers in his favor, he should take a roundabout road, for so great a dis- 
tance, to receive odds against himself. This, however, was regarded as im- 
pertinent, and the Young Napoleon went his way, backed by the hopes and 



1^ 

confidence of the whole nation. lie took one hundred and twenty thousand men 
with him, which was all he asked for at that time. He requested more, and 
the Government forwarded the divisions of Franklin and McCall, and others, 
until he had received one hundred and fifty thousand men, and there was 
but nineteen thousand and twenty-two left behind for the defense of 
"Washington. The Government, which has been so roundly vilified for not 
having sent him more, could not spare another soldier, for the divisions of 
McDowell and Banks were the necessary stays against the eneniy at Fred- 
ericksburg and "Warrenton, and there was no surplus in commission. Tho 
Young Napoleon, might, however, have had them all, had he remained at 
Washington, and moved with them upon Richmond from that point ; for ho 
would thus have been enabled to cover the capital and the valley of the Shen- 
andoah at the same time, and to have kept the odds, too, on his own side. 

But he preferred a more profound and complicated policy, and the result 
of it was, that the enemy caught him right in the midst of his brilliant stra- 
tegy, and drove him pell-mell out of it, so that he burned his tents and stores, 
and fled for a week, leaving his guns in large numbers, and his wounded and 
his dead behind him. Instead of driving the enemy to the wall, they ran Mm 
into the mud, and brought him to a terrible standstill for months. The main 
results, therefore, of his brilliant strategy are, that he has cost the country 
about five hundred millions of dollars, prolonged the war at least a year, re- 
duced his army practically to seventy thousand men, and in addition to para- 
lyzing it for months, as he once before paralyzed the grand array of the Poto- 
mac, he has actually water-logged the navy also, for he has " tied up" several 
hundred vessels (transports and men-of-war), in the simple duty of feeding 
and protecting him. The minor results of his genius are, the dejection of the 
country, a deluge of shinplasters, the sneers of Europe, the hisses of Oxford, 
the invigoration of the rebel cause in Paidiament, and the confident side whis- 
per of old Palmerston to his rampant Commons, that a few weeks longer will 
bring a still better chance for intervention. "Well might the French Princes 
and Beau Astor leave him in disgust, and well might he send forth his mili- 
tary orators to notify the people that his acts are sacred from analysis, and 
that he is a great general, for they hnoic it. 

Now, we have arrived just at the point of this article where we wish to 
state that we believe he is neither a great general nor a clever man ; and to 
further express our conviction that he is entirely unfitted, by reason of men- 
tal inferiority, for any broader military task than the management of a 
brigade. 

There are many ways of testing intellectual capacity, and we know of no 
case easier for this purpose, than McClellan's. He is a military adept, and he 
cannot plan ; a soldier, and he cannot fight ; a scholar, and he cannot write. 
There is not one of his dispatches that will bear the analysis of a schoolboy ; 
not one of his bulletins which is not bloated with bombast: not one of his 
statements that is not vague, foggy, or "purely unintelligible." 

lie first sprang into the ijublic ring, at Rich Mountain, like an acrobat or 
a rope-dancer. The battle of that name was really performed by Rosecrans ; 
but, though a simple operation, it was well conceived, and, notwithstanding 
McClellan was not present, it, by the laws of practice, accrues to his credit, 
as the senior officer.* Well do we bear in mind the tenor of the telegram by 
which he announced this victory to the world ; and we here put it as a point 
of inference, whether a man, avIio, after years of laborious scholarship, can be 
80 grossly inexact in the deliberate use of words, can reasonably be expected 

• By the same rule, however, he is fully responsible lor the dreadful blunders and butchery of 
Ball's Bluff, for that, the first of his operations as Commander-ia-Chief, was planned and ordered by 
himself. 



13 

to exhibit any mental method of planning a campaign ; or, to develop accuracy, 
while arranging battalions amid tlie perturbations and the heat of action? 

"The success of to-day," says our Napoleon, "is all that I could desire. 
"We captured six brass cannons, of which one is rifled, all the eneniys' camp 
equipage and transportation, even to his cups. The number of tents will, 
probably, reach two hundred, and more than sixty wagons. Their killed and 
wounded will amount to fully one hundred and fifty, with one hundred 
prisoners." ' 

* * * " Their retreat is complete. * * j j^^y say we have driven 
out some ten thousand men." * * * 

Then, after some furtiier grandiloquent display, Napoleon closes with the 
following literary cross, between the styles of Mr. Merriman and Uriah Heap : 

" I hope the General-in-Cliief will approve of my operations." 

"Does the razor hurt you, sir?" says the barber, when conscious of his 
lightest touch. " A little applause, if you please, ladies and gentlemen !" 
imploringly looks Mr. Merriman, as he crosses his legs and throws out his 
fingers from his lips, after a clever summersault. There is but one step between 
the sublime and the ridiculous ; so the public, not looking for a mountebank, 
and being struck with this strange style, picked little Mac up for a Na- 
poleon. 

Then came the proposition for a bloodless war — imagine the old Napoleoa 
doing that! Next came the cruel exoneration of General Stone, and the 
wanton defamation of the heroic Baker, who was immolated to their 
united blunders at Ball's Bluff; next. Napoleon's Zow-toned reflection upon 
the misfortunes of a brother officer (who would have harvested his victory 
but for the creature Patterson), by pompously proclaiming " No more retreats ; 
no more defeats ; no more Bull Ran affiiirs." Then followed his repeatedly 
pretended preparations for a battle, and his prescient declaration, that the 
closely impending conflict would be "short, sharp, and bitter," though time 
has revealed that, while saying so, he did not mean to fight at all. During 
all this while, he went riding up and down the lines, assuring " the boys " 
that if they would "stick by him, he would stick by them," and occasionally 
telling them, in the imperial vein, to have no fear, for he would expose his 
sacred person, with them, in the dangers of the field. 

We next find Young Napoleon at Yorktown, before the head of an army, 
with which Old Napoleon would have marched all over Secessia, and back 
again, in six months ; but instead of taking the meagre city by assault, and 
giving the North and East an opportunity to square accounts of glory with 
the West, his bloodless strategy was again put in play, and he distributed the 
shovel instead of drawing forth the sword. At length the Confederates, 
having detained him long enough to secure the arrival of their reinforcements 
from the South, made, at their leisure, a masterly retreat, the details of which 
lasted through four decorous days. Nay, a single spontaneous rebel, with a 
solitary gun, which he fii'ed on his own hook all night, after the Confederates 
were gone, stayed the progress of our army for several hours more. Now, 
mark what our Napoleon did. He did not throw up redoubts before that 
man — though under his Crimean affliction of mud upon the brain, he must 
have been sorely tempted to such course — but having ascertained that the 
enemy had indeed marched out, he immediately sent off a handful of dis- 
patches, stating in set terms, that he had won a 'brilliant victory ! Yes, 
victory was the word ! Nay, not satisfied with this, and though the enemy 
had burned all their refuse, and lost not a single wagon, the little Mars, on 
the following morning, sent off another fiood of telegrams, announcing that 
our victory, at Yorktown, had proved to be even more irilliant than he had 
at first supposed. This gross misuse of language would seem to indicate 



either a conscious want of fighting prestige, (did vp-e say of courage ?) or an 
ignorance of the true weight of words; but if neither this nor that, then lie 
must have intended to foist a false idea on the public. But the climax of this 
grand absurdity was yet to come, and it did come, in the shape of another 
telegram, so miserable in its character, so measly with humility, that our 
cheek still tingles at our share of the disgrace, sustained through it, by general 
human nature : 

"May I be permitted to allow my troops to inscribe Yoektown on their 
banners, as other generals have done ?" 

This is so pitiable, and, for a commander-in-chief, so deplorably mean- 
Bpirited, that we do not care to dwell upon the picture. It could hardly look 
worse if he had sent the same application to JeffL Davis, on the subject of the 
Chickahominy ! But the Confederate President had undoubtedly " approved 
of his operations" in that quarter 

Next came the affair at Williamsburgh, where the rear guard of the enemy, . 
finding us pressing after them too closely, turned grandly back and gave us 
bitter battle. The fight lasted for some seven hours, Gen. McOlellan, accord- 
ing to his custom, arrived upon the field after the strife was over, and, having 
reined up near Hancock's brigade, was made cognizant of their brilliant closing 
charge. Ignoring, thereupon, all other features of the day, he sent off a dis- 
patch in which he gave credit to that brigade alone. That credit was, doubt- 
less, well deserved, but it had been earned by an incidental operation, lasting 
not over forty minutes, while the divisions of Hooker, and Keese, and Kearney, 
and the Excelsior Brigade of Sickles, had been breathing the red flame of 
battle for six or seven hours. The other reports, however, exhibited the 
gross injustice of this single compliment, and, at the end of several days, we 
find Napoleon reluctantly putting forth another bulletin, in which he says, in 
substance, that had he hnown, when writing his first dispatch, of the gallant 
services performed by such and such divisions and brigades, he would have 
done them justice at the time, and in degree as he should learn who else 
behaved with spirit, he would award them equal praise. Was ever any con- 
fession, that was extorted under threatened consequences, more abject and 
significant than this? 

But there is a crowning absurdity and contradiction yet to come, as in the 
case of the Yorktown telegrams, only we regret to say, that the climax, in 
this case, is more serious than in the other, and hardly reconcilable with 
ordinary common sense. Two or three days after this latent recognition of a 
brave army's toils and sacrifices, General McClellan reviewed Hancock's bri- 
gade, and having expressed a few words of warm eulogium, he is reported to 
have said, "You saved our army from disgrace !" Was ever statement like 
this heard before from a commander, about his army? Who was it that, but 
for this small squad, would have betrayed us to disgrace ? Whas it the corps 
d'armee of the grim old lleintzelman ? Was it Hooker's or Kearney's, or 
Sickles' gallant men ? Or, was it any, or all of the regiments whose prowess 
he had recognized but two or three days before ? We do not wish to press 
the matter, and we hope it is not true. If it be not, it should be denied, for 
it is too heavy a weight for even Ajax to carry with decorum down the 
aisles of history. 

The next dispatch of our hero relates to the battle of Fair Oaks, where 
Casey's skeleton division was precariously posted on the far side of the river, 
and so far in front as to invite the assault of some forty thousand men. This 
exposed handful of inexperienced troops, lately recruited from Pennsylvania 
and New York, of course, recoiled, as did the veterans at Shiloh, under the 
stunning blow; nevertheless, and though hundreds of them strewed the field, 
they raUied, and bravely withstood the pressure of the superincumbent foe for 



15 

full three hours, at the astounding cost, in killed and wounded, of one-third of 
their entire number. The Ooraniander-in-Ohief, according to the reports, did 
not arrive upon the field until the fight was fairly over. Then gathering the 
details, probably from fugitives, he dashed oflf a dispatch, which he ostenta- 
tiously dated "From the Field of Battle!" in which he virtually denounced 
the whole division of the old veteran, as cowards. Lo, in about ten days 
afterward, he was obliged to swallow one-half this dispatch, as he did that of 
Williamsburg, and to acknowledge tliat he, the Commander-in-Chief, who 
dated his dispatch so blushingly "from the field of battle," had been misin- 
formed about the matter. The other half, however, still rankles in the hearts 
of many a man and woman in the Empire and the Quaker States, whose sons 
and kinsmen drenched that cruel field in expiation of the fatal strategy of 
Young Napoleon. The shabby recompense was perforce accepted, but not a 
citizen of either State, whose stranded youth have been thus fearfully defamed 
in death, can lightly pass it from the mind. And it is because of this wrong, 
that we can now say to the anonymous wretches who have flooded us with 
obscure and insolent epistles about these articles, that we personally feel we 
owe no more undue and criminal forbearance to McClellah's blunders. 

But he was not yet done with dispatches, even in relation to this battle ; 
for in the face of the fact, that the enemy had driven him from his camp, 
with the loss of many guns, and that they had slept upon the very battle 
ground, our Young Napoleon announced from his waist-deep location in the 
marsh, that he had gained a decided advantage over them, and secured a bettoir 
position than before. Subsequent events have shown, however, that, if the 
position to which he was thus ingloriously pushed was better, the former must 
have been hell itself. This is certainly a fair conclusion, for in a few days 
afterward he was driven from the last, at a cost of fifteen thousand men and 
about thirty cannon ; while nothing but the strange valor of our soldiers, and 
the talent of their able marshals, combining with the fortunate drunkenness 
of certain Confederate Generals, saved our whole force from absolute destruc- 
tion. The latter series of actions which etfected this result opened at three 
o'clock on the morning of the 26th of June, but McClellan did not make his 
appearance on the field until some four or five hours afterwards. The fight 
thus opened lasted seven days, but though we have read all the printed letters 
within our reach, about the matter, we fail to find more than one mention of 
Napoleon, during the prolonged melee^ and that mention spoke of him and his 
staff as riding briskly to the rear, while whole columns were sweeping the 
other way to the attack. A strange epilogue to the "stick by me, and I'll 
stick by you" orations ! 

Yes, at the close of affairs, we get another glimpse of him, but then he had 
made port, and was high up in the rigging of the Galena, with a spy-glass in 
his hand surveying the turmoil on the shore. He may have been in the centre 
of every hot encounter, dealing death upon the rebels with his own good 
sword, but we have failed to hear of it ; and it has not been our good fortune 
to find a single tribute, from any mercurial reporter, describing the modern 
Napoleon's coolness when some ball fell near him, or noticing the pleasing 
smile which overspread his face, when the dirt thrown up by some adjacent 
shell consecrated him with the real baptism of battle. These reports are so 
usual in campaigns, that it is singular they should be omitted in this case, and 
the conclusion, therefore, is, either that the reporters were exceedingly 
remiss, or that no such scenes of signal hardihood occurred. 

The first dispatch which our young Commander wrote in relation to this 
week of battles, was, as the London Times has said, about his plans, 
''purely unintelligible." By dint of study, however, and acute translation, 
we gather from it, the general idea, that he has outmanaged the enemy, though 



46 

by these repeated successes it seems he has been terribly reduced, and forced 
again to relinquish the musket for the spade, and find shelter between his gun- 
boats and redoubts. 

The dispatch which announced this jf?asco to the world, again claimed an 
improvement of position, and with the deliberate intention of imposing on 
the country, Napoleon announced that he had lost but one siege gun. The 
claqners took this as a cue for their hosannahs, and encouraged by this un- 
expected demonstration, our hero sent off a semi-official letter, stating that 
the enemy had retreated. It was probably true that but one " siege" gun 
had been lost, but we were entitled to know how many guns of other 
calibre and fashion were lost with it. It was not true, in any point of view, 
however, that the enemy had retreated, for McOlellan knew perfectly well, 
that they, having driven him to a cowering shelter under the protection of 
his men of war, had merely fallen back to a position consistent with their 
base of operations. 

"We have thus traced our Young Napoleon throughout the operations of 
this war, and while we find that nine-tenths of the hopes of the nation were 
centred on his genius, he proves to be the only chieftain who has brought 
disaster and disgrace upon the country. Look at him from what point of 
view w'e will, he is certainly the most extraordinary General who ever 
figured on the page of history. lie is either a genius or he is nothing, for 
he follows none of the ordinary theories, and does everything by inversion. 
Redoes not believe at all in the policy of attack ; he sees no moral loss or 
disadvantage in enduring siege from inferior numbers ; and, with a principle 
of strategy, not very well established, prefers to fight against heavy odds, to 
having them. The President required him to move upon Manassas, but he 
obeyed against his will, and every battle in the Peninsula has been forced 
upon him by the enemy. "When he arrived before Yorktown, with his one 
hundred and twenty thousand men, there were but eight thousand Con- 
federate troops within its walls, and had he then instituted an assault, and 
moved thenceforward promptly upon Richmond, he might have escaped the 
disastrous results which were the tough rewards of his week of victory. It 
cannot be denied that, but for the gun-boats which now cover him witli their 
tremendous engines, his army, which was to "drive the enemy to the wall," 
would be taken "stock and fluke," and he, perhaps, be figuring in a pen in 
Eichmond. And let us say, that we believe this the only way in which he 
will ever get to Richmond, from his present superior position, unless, by the 
providence of God, some man more able than himself, shall make a diversion 
upon the rebel capital, that will enable him to co-operate; or, unless he 
crawl out of the Peninsula on his transports, back to the true base of opera- 
tions before "Washington. 

But he should not be intrusted again with a superior command. His 
policy is too inexplicable, and he has cost us enough already. The little mud 
fort which he built for his friend, Pierre Toutant Beauregard, and the place 
assigned him in the Lone Star movement, behind his associates, Sidney 
Johnson, J. K. Duncan, Mansfield Lovell, and Gustavus Smith, give the full 
measure of his value. Nay, if we are to take the word of his admirers, he 
has furnished it himself ; for, conscious of his own defects, he humbly asked 
the President to be deposed from his high place — and asked it virtually in 
favor of a man who started in the race for eminence behind him. Alas, for 
human glory, and particularly for that kind of glory which could not keep 
its seat, With seven hundred thousand bayonets and a nation at its back. 

And this is the chieftain who, we are told, is a " great genius," "a second 
Napoleon," "a glorious, gallant, and unconquerable leader," and who we are 
forbidden to discuss, on pain of General suspicion and displeasure. 



17 

Bnt, to use a common phrase, tins sj'stem of dragooning is "played out," the 
wand of Little Mac is broken, and the public, which furnishes the men and 

foots the bill, is thinking for itself. "We can, therefore, inform Gen. 

with all the modesty becoming a civilian, that the people of the city of New 
York, in particular, have of late been very busy in forming opinions in this 
matter, and we can assure him, also, that many of the best Democrats among 
us. believe, that if this "gifted" chieftain had died a year ago, the war would 
have been over, and this country again happy and united. 

And they have much cause for this belief, for they saw McClellan unac- 
countably restrain the chafing army of the Potomac for eight months; and 
they now behold him outdoing his earlier strategy, by paralyzing the navy 
also, and, with urgent cries of help, not only weakening the maritime resources 
of Mobile and Kew Orleans ; but virtually raising the blockade of Charleston 
harbor. May Heaven protect us from such geniuses! The public at large, 
though it may not be able to manage an army, can reason on causes and re- 
sults; and New York, which has been so lavish of its means and men, has a 
full vote in desiring to be relieved of a leader who is so unlucky. Generals 
are usually court-martialed for such reverses as have happened to McClellan, 
and there are instances in history, where unlucky leaders have had the addi- 
tional misfortune to be shot. General may rest assured that he cannot 

resurrect his idol by mere epithets and spells of prestige ; nor can Young 
Napoloen himself regain his ground, even by the most gracious devotion of 
his talents to the duties of the hospital. His army will not revolt, as has been 
threatened, even if he be removed; for they, like the clear-sighted public, 
must, by this time, be willing to try if a new leader may not bring, at least, a 
change of fortune. 

AVe would, therefore, respectfully suggest to our friend. General , 

that he had better fire his blank cartridges of laudation without impngning 
the intentions and motives of his equals ; and would advise, that if he be really 
anxious to recruit his regiments, he offer pledges to our shrinking citizens, 
that, if they will but enlist, they shall not be consigned to the fatal leadership 
of the Caesar of the Chickahominy. 

Finally, if General would still defend the genius of his patron, he 

will, perhaps, favor us with a little light upon one lingering question. The 
public, without being too importunate, would like exceedingly to know why 
our noble army was allowed so long to canker in the camps of the Potomac, 
while the rebel flag, in presence of the Capitol, flouted the manhood and pres- 
tige of the nation ? It cannot he that the rising Captain hovnd himself to the 
unJcnotcn interest which put Mm forward for the dizzy eminence of chief com- 
mand, to pursue a prescribed policy, should he he appointed! for his pride and 
loyalty would have discarded such prescription, as soon as he found it working 
adversely for the country. He must have had other reasons; and what those 
reasons were, and why, with his superabundant troops, wliich were equally 
seasoned with the enemy's, he did not " push" the ragged, feeble, and retiring 
rebels of Manassas ''to the wall." should no longer be a mystery.* 

At this late date. General McClellan, who has received so many favors 
from the country, will probably have not the least objection to disclose. He 
can communicate his answer without hesitation, and confidentially, if he de- 
sire, for we will tell nobody but the public, and we are all friends here. 

* No one at this time siispeeted that Secretary Seward was the man mopt interested by obligation 
and ambition, in blunting the edge of the Federal sword ; or that it was his influence which always 
pulled against the vigorous and speedy subjugation of the South. 



18 

A REFUTATION. 

New York, August 11. / 

Office Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 
MoOlellan's Staff. — We are informed that an ofBcer, wlio has lately been 
on temporary duty with McClellan's staif, says that members of that staff 
report, that we so sharply criticise Young Rapid only through personal pique 
for not having been appointed on his staff, after we had used every effort to 
be placed there. We have repeatedly denied tiiis imputation, and we now, 
for the last time, desire to say, that there is not the slightest foundation for 
any such report. We never sought such appointment by direction or by 
indirection ; never thought of, or desired it. If, therefore, any gentleman of 
McOlellan's staff has so i-eported upon hearsay, he is misinformed; and we 
desire to add, that if any one makes such a statement, as of his own personal 
knowledge (which we beg to doubt), he tells a falsehood. We do not know 
how we can frame a more explicit denial of the report than this. 



THE OPIATE OF THE NORTH. 



New York, August 25, 1862. ) 
Office Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

Whepever the community are awakened from a dream, they turn upon 
the innovator, though laboring in their cause, and suspect him for an enemy. 
And this is most strikingly evinced when the illusion is one of popular idola- 
try, for the affections are always loth to reason, and it is a noble characteris- 
tic of the public heart, that it clings to misfortune more readily than it yields 
to proof. There are degrees of pressure, however, when the adoration of 
even^ the most enchanted worshiper breaks down ; a state of prevailing evi- 
dence, when the cold north wind of common sense must split a relieving road 
through the fogs of even the mistiest brains. We believe that this state of 
comprehension has come about, in regard to Little Mac. 

Little Mac has now been on experiment a year. To help him to a success- 
ful demonstration, the Nation gave him seven hundred thousand bayonets, 
placed to his draft many hundred millions of money, and declared liim the 
chief heir of its fortunes, if he would but crush a handful of audacious mal- 
contents who had risen in rebellion. Nay, the rebels themselves, as if con- 
spiring to confirm a brilliant destiny, grouped themselves before him for 
months, in handy striking distance, and with their meagre numbers seemed 
to taunt him on the road to fsime. But, with a forbearance to temptation 
more striking than that exhibited by Caesar on the Lupercal, he constantly 
put back the dazzling invitation, and made but one reluctant footstep on the 
road to fame, and that, too, under protest. 

The Government and People wished him to push on, whereupon, being 
much annoyed by the general impatience, he revealed his long concealed plan 
of a cami)aign on the Peninsula. Tlie President and the Secretary disap- 
proved the policy, but inasmuch as Little Mac insisted that by this route he 
needed but one hundred and twenty thousand troops to capture Richmond, 
the President, not being a Napoleon, yielded to the military adept, who he 
thought was one. Little Mac took one hundred and twenty thousand troops 
with him, he was reinforced by forty thousand more; he exhibited liis satis- 
faction in repeated boastful telegrams — but lo, after four months of " brilliant 
strategy,"and the full development of his vast genius, he is back to where he 
started from, with one half his army lost, the country heavily disgraced, and 
himself superseded of his baton by a rival who started in the race behind 
him. Whoever, therefore, wants Little Mac for their hero are heartily wel- 
come to hini 



19 

TVe detected his deficiency as a commander when he refused to assault 
Yorktown and its garrison of bare eight thousand ; we were confirmed in our 
judgment when he permitted the insurgents to be reinforced to the extent of 
sixty-seven thousand, and then, "after having checked him for a montli, march 
away to Richmond without losing even a single man. Our mind was thoroughly 
impressed, moreover, with the bombastic imposition tliat this was a " brilliant 
victory'''' — a victory which should be emblazoned on the Federal banners and 
proudly enrolled in history ! At every fresh step, new evidences of imbe- 
cility made us more and more restive with Mac's policy, and at last, when 
we saw Hooker abandoned to superior forces for seven hours, at Williams- 
burg, and Casey's division sent unsupported on the further side of the 
Chickahominy, in the true Ball's Bluft' style of strategy, we considered it our 
duty to rebuke, as far as one reviewer could, any more such demonstrations 
with our troops. 

We, then, for the first time laid onr thoughts before the public, and we are 
encouraged to believe, that though there still lingers some fond resistance in 
well-meaning minds for glorious Little Mac, the great mass are disenchanted 
of his spell, and his remaining troops are rescued to a more capable command. 
We never met General McClellan, have never sought to do so; have mingled 
always with his friends, and have no animosities against him. The base and 
ignorant have had suspicions to the contrary, and we have been subjected 
now and then to strong abuse ; but this, as we have said before, only shows 
how great was the necessity for boldly speaking as we did, while the rush of 
opinion latterly in our favor measures the public service we have rendered. 
Seven weeks ago we said that " he could not reach Richmond from his posi- 
tion on the James, except as a captive; and that unless some leader, abler 
than himself, should extricate his stranded forces and restore them to the true 
base of operations, nothing but the Providence of God could save him from 
capitulation." Well-meaning, loyal friends entreated us not to publish that 
opinion, but we did publish it, and, since that publication, the President has 
superseded him, and General Ilalleck, against Napoleon's protest, as the jour- 
nals of the morning state, insisted upon his coming out of the Peninsula. 
His eulogists are bursting with admiration that in this final " change of base" 
he did not lose a man ; but no enemy pursued, for the General who took 
pains to extricate him was intelligently occupying, the attention of the insur- 
gents in another quarter. 

So far from being McClellan's enemy, therefore, we have proved ourself 
his most serviceable friend ; for we have contributed largely to his escape 
from utter ruin, and have not helped to render him ridiculous by calling his 
disastrous movements and retreats Napoleonic strokes of genius. . We have, 
indeed, presented for him the only theory against the worst accusation of his 
foes, and if he be a man of generous mind he will recognize the favor. It is 
his flatterers and apologists only who have done him wrong; and those who 
have administered the hardest blow are they who accused the government 
with refusing to send him all the troops he wanted, and with being responsi- 
ble for the failure which succeeded Williamsburg. 

One question disposes of these critics in a breath. Let us suppose he had 
demandetl more troops from Washington, knowing as he did the meagre num- 
ber in that quarter ; and let us suppose further that he had received them — 
what would have been the fate of the capitol to-day? 

One other question. Did he have any ascertained number of troops under 
him when he said he intended to push "the rebels to the wall?" Did he 
have fifty thousand ? Did he know, for certain, he had ten? If yes, then the 
assertion that he had not troops enough for his purposes, vanislies entirely,, 
for this phrase was uttered as late as Williamsburg, when he could expect no' 



so 

more recruits, and he is tlierefore fully responsible for every reverse that fol- 
lowed. 

Having thus vindicated McClellan from the injurious inferences which un- 
reasoning parasites had lodged against him, we now take leave, and commend 
him to better fortune in tlie future, and we hope that, in the new position in 
the service to which Ilalleck may assign him, he may escape the horde of flat- 
terers who seem to have perplexed his brain, and be enabled to render a 
service to the country commensurate with his abilities. 

In reward for the trouble which we have expended on this topic, we 
would ask, in the name of the public, but one simple favor, and that is, that 
Little Mac would tell us all, confidentially, if he desire, why he so long held 
back his quadrupled legions from attacking the rebels at Manassas, and why, 
after he had been forced, against his will, to drive them off, he stubbornly re- 
fused to "push them to the wall." 

There is no reason why this question should not be replied to. Onr army 
was kept under canvas amid all the blasts of winter, as if hourly awaiting a 
proper opportunity, while the rebels, but a few miles in front, were cosily 
domiciled in comfortable huts, and not disturbed till March. It would appear 
as if this inquiry might now be safely answered. We hope we are all friends 
here ? 



THE TRAGEDY AT CENTREVILLE. 



New York, September 2T, 1862, ) 
Office Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. | 
In looking over the queer campaign of Maryland, we are forcibly reminded 
of some of the leading features of McClellan's operations in the Peninsula, and 
in the recent complications of the late movements at Manassas. The report 
of Gen. Hooker will establish that, when we might have crushed the enemy 
at Williamsburg by reinforcements and pursuit, those reinforcements were 
refused. It was Sumner who had charge of the reserves on which Hooker 
made his requisition, but that commander justifies himself by saying that, 
" under his orders,^'' he could not let Hooker have them. At the late battles of 
Centreville, where Pope and his army were sacrificed to the jealousies of West 
Point, the same scene was re-enacted. On the Sunday previous, Hooker and 
Franklin landed with their divisions at Annapolis. The former, actuated by 
a fighting impulse, found four days of battle previous to the next Sunday, 
extricating Pope by beating Ewell on the first, while Franklin, one of the pet 
Generals of McClellan, did not find a single one. On the Wednesday, during 
which McClellan sat idly at Alexandria, that commander received an order 
from Gen. Halleck to place himself within easy supporting distance of Gen. 
Pope ; and a copy of this order was sent to Pope at the same time by Ilalleck, 
in order that he might know what were his reliances. Pope, on the strength 
of this order, requested Franklin and Sumner to come up, and he asked from 
McClellan rations and forage for his horses. They had been nearly two days 
without food, and the road to McClellan was all the way within our lines. 
The answer of the general who received this appeal, and knew its vital char- 
acter, was, that if Gen. Pope would send a cavalry escort (the distance being 
nearly thirty miles) he should liave the desired supplies. " When I received 
this answer," sajs Pope, in his report, " I gave up all hope, for I could not 
withdraw any portion of my force from the front, and if I should gain any 
advantage of the enemy, I had no means, without cavalry, of following it up.' 



21 

The reinforcements under Sumner and Franklin were likewise withheld till 
Saturday, and on the final day of strife Fitz John Porter, with his division, 
and Griffin, with his troops, stood still in presence of the enemy, and refused 
to fii,'ht. Even the very soldiers who had been tampered with by some of the 
Generals of the Peninsula, and taught to despise Pope for that opening proc- 
lamation which reflected upon their strategic idol, acted badly, and with such 
expressions as "damn Pope!" "to hell with Pope!" fought moodily, dis- 
gustedly, and almost threw down their arms. 

While this shuddering spectacle was in course at Centreville, Little Mao, 
who refused the forage and the rations to the soldiers of the Union, is reported 
by the Washington Chronicle as having sat upon the hill-side, in the midst 
of his beloved staff, "quietly smoking his segar, while the booming of 
the guns bore to his ear the note of battle." "McOlellan," continues the 
Chronicle, " was cool and quiet. He stated that Pope was attacked — that he 
would be defeated — that his own noble men, whom he had loved as children, 
would be slaughtered as cattle, without any good purpose. He marked out the 
results as clearly as if it was history — all of which has been fulfilled — and ex- 
pressed his abiding confidence he would yet, and in a few days, lead the army 
to victory." Thus stand the lines of a gigantic horror all revealed ; and the 
poor country, against whose welfore it was perpetrated, lay at the mercy of 
the sword thus plunged within its breast. Poor Pope, defamed to the 
soldiers betrayed by their chiefs, deprived of all means, fell a total wreck 
and hauled off for repairs, unable to obtain the least shadow of redress. And 
his deniitiul for a court-martial was destined to be smothered by the subse- 
quent anthorit}^ of Little Mac, in the same way he denied the request of the 
Senate fnr an investigation of Ball's Bluff, and as he will doubtless prevent 
investigation into the mysteries of Antietam and Harper's Ferry. 

But let us keep to the thread of our narrative. On the Sunday evening 
subsequent to these last battles of Bull Run, Gen. McClellan walked into the 
headquarters of Gen. Halleck, and with an air of injured innocence said: 

" I understand, Gen. PLalleck, you have censured me." 

"I have not censured you," was Gen. Halleck's reply. 

"Tlien, i-ir," said McClellan, in his usual deliberate style of speech, "I 
have been greatly misinformed." 

" I did not censure you, Gen. McClellan," continued the Commander-in- 
Chief, '• because I did not know what your condition was, or Avhat excuse* 
you iniglit have to offer. I did state, however, most emphatically, both to 
the Pr.'sident and the Secretary of War, that I b.ad expected you to be with- 
in sui^jioi'ting distance of Gen. Pope on Thursday; but I did not censure you, 
because I was not then in possession of evidence which I soon expect to 
obtain." 

Whether General Halleck ever collected that evidence in form, or not, we 
do not know — but we do know, that the milit|iry circles which had been all 
alive on Saturday night, with the expectation that there would soon be work 
for till' Provost Marshal with certain lofty persons, and even for the employ- 
ment of a corporaV 8 guards were utterly amazed at a bulletin announcing that 
Gen. McClellan had been re-installed in command of all the forces in th« 
field. Little Mac was in this matter a real victor, and he followed up his ad- 
vantage, for once, in the true victorious style ; for when Pope demanded a 
court-nuirtial upon Fitz John Porter, Griffin, and the rest of Cassar's clan. 
Little Mac dissipated It with the puff of his segar, and bani-^hed the western 
interloper away off to the Indians. Poor Pope ftiay, in his exile, compare the 
injuries which he received at the hands, respectively, of McClellan and'Fremont. 
The latter, having had serious official disputes with him, merely refused to 
serve under a commander with whom ho could not agree — but Little Mac- 
caught and strangled him, and then hurled hira from the Tarpeian rock. 



22 
THE BATTLE OP ANTIETAM. 



New Yokk, October 4, 1862, ( 

Office Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

Two weeks have elapsed since the battle of Antietani, and the forces 
with which our Young Napoleon claimed to have been brilliantly victorious 
are still lying in accumulated strength, but one day's march in advance of 
the ground on which thej fought. The rebels, who, it is now ascertained, 
had, at the most, fifty-five thousand men, as opposed to our hundred and 
twenty thousand, remain defiantly in front, and stubbornly hold Harper's 
Ferry; while they offset their losses in the battles of Sunday, Tuesday, and 
Wednesday, by an equal number of our dead and wounded. By all fair rules 
of calculation, therefore. Little Mac has got the worst of this embrace of 
strength; for, admitting results to have been equal in tlie field, we are losers 
of the great post of Harper's Ferry; losers also of the fourteen thousand five 
hundred men, who are struck dead therein from oif our army rolls; and 
losers also of all the vast supplies of food and arms by which the captors are 
now enabled to remain within our neighborhood. It would seem, therefore, 
that Little Mac, with his one hundred and twenty thousand men, his sixteen 
thousand in Harper's Ferry, and his seventy-five thousand advancing from 
Pennsylvania, has not been so successful as he thought, wlien he dictated 
his recent dazzling telegrams, and tliat his tictories on these last occasions 
are very much of the same character as those which he announced at York- 
town, where he did not take a wagon, and those also whicli he proclaimed 
from the mud at Turkey Bend, when the enemy leisurely fell back, after hav- 
ing penned him in that pig-sty of the James. 

AH military authorities say, that the first rule of victory is, to follow np 
your adversary ; and that, however distressed and exhausted may be your 
own condition, you must pour your cavalry upon liis retiring columns, and 
demoralize him to the utmost. If you cannot do that, the most you can 
claim is a drawn battle ; but if the enemy walk off at his leisure, undisturbed, 
^nd grasps, at the same time, your best fortress as he goes — outnumbering 
you in captives, also, ten to one— it requires but very little frankness to 
admit, that you have got the worst of it. We fear, however, that Little Mac, 
in this last brilliant effort of his genius, was teri-ibly hampered, as he has 
always been, by those presumptuous civilians, who were doubtless, even at 
that very moment, conducting a fire in his rear. It may be, too, that that 
super-brilliant fellow, Fitz John Porter, who looked on and refused to fight 
at Centreville, really disappointed our Young Napoleon, on this occasion, by 
not furnishing reinforcements, in the crisis of the battle, at the several calls 
of Pleasanton and Burnside ; but w^hatever the cause was, McOlellan again, 
though in superior force, brought in no spoil, and reaped no victory, but one 
which, like all his previous triumphs, left him still loser both in troops and 
arms. We dwell somewhat on this general result, because it is due not only 
to the eulogists who boasted Mac would now wind np the war, but due also 
to McOlellan himself, for it shows how deeply he is the victim of misfortune. 
Indeed, it is further due to him it should be known, that on setting out from 
Washington, in pursuit of Lee, he stated it was his conviction he was "too 
late, though he would do the best he could ;" but then, how could his ingen- 
uous nature suspect Lee of such an unworthy artifice as a "change of base," 
during a truce for the mere burial of the dead ? Thus treachery and decep- 
tion involve the fortunes of our little general at every step he takes, and the 
worst of it is, we are constantly agitated with alarm that his persevering ill 
luck may, at any moment, swamp the country. His caution, however, is a 



23 

great reliance. He took nine days to find the enemy in Maryland, over a 
road of barely fifty miles (indeed, lie might not have found him then, had 
not Lee turned back, and looked for him), and it is now two weeks since he 
met him and defeated him ; and he has not followed him yet. We are told 
he is afraid the Potomac may rise behind liim, and thus embarrass his retreat; 
but we have heard a really great general say, within a day or two, that such 
consideration is unworthy the master of the situation. Others, more invidious, 
have suspected Little Mac of want of courage, and even the Secretary of War 
has said, within the week, "Confound him, he will never put himself under 
fire, nor permit Fitz John Porter to do so either;" but probably such criti- 
cisms do more harm than good, and Little Mac had better pass for a hero so 
long as he continues in the field. His rule as master of the situation is but 
brief, and he should not be too much worried while it lasts. Moreover, it 
is not absolutely necessary a commander-in-chief should be a man of courage, 
though it would be better he possessed that quality. He can get along with- 
out it, and if utter exigency require him to dash along the lines, he may seek 
those locations for display which do not imperil his important person. This 
was his rule throughout the battles of the Peninsula, where he never was 
once within the whistle of a ball ; and tlie same prudence must have been the 
law with him at Antietam, or we should never have heard the above remark 
from Secretary Stanton, 

AVhen Young Napoleon will move again, no prescience can tell. It should 
be satisfactory to us poor civilians, that, though the army was not sent 
to Sharpsburg to be "safe," it vi safe, nevertheless; and on that basis, let 
us all find margin for the prayer that we may not have another such a vic- 
tory as Antietam, and that God, in his goodness, will soon get fighting Joe 
Hooker well again. 



FITZ* NAPOLEON NO MORE. 



New York, November 33, 18G2, \ 
Office Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

After an earnest eff'ort of six months, during which we devoted ourself to 
demonstrating the incapacity and want of loyalty of Gen. McCIellan, we are 
gratified at being able to congratulate our readers and the country that this 
muddy incubus and military idiot is virtually dismissed from the American 
service. 

On Friday night last, at his headquarters in Virginia, the rapid strategist 
who has been following Lee since the 21st October, at the tremendous rate 
of just four miles and a half a day, was suddenly interrupted in his arduous 
operations, and required to report himself at the headquarters of his family 
in the centre of New Jersey. As the order was imperative, and Burnside 
had received the baton, Majilius had no time for protest; so he packed his 
trunk, and, taking " an aflfectionate leave of the army," turned his back on 
the Blue Ridge, and, surrounded by his sympathizing "staflf," moodily steered 
his charger's head for Trenton, It was a tableau not exactly like that of the 
farewell of the First Napoleon at Fontainebleau, but still it is worthy of some 
American artist, and should not be lost to the cartoons of the Capitol. Its 
contrast with our hero's ostentatious entrance into Washington a year before 

» The term Fitz, is a favorite prefix with the British aristocracy, to indicate the bar sinister, or, in 
plainer terms, to suggest a dash of bastardy. Thus, the Fitz Herberts and the fitz Clarences were 
the spawn of the vices of the House of Hanover, while many of the English Fitzes woro the waifs 
oblique of lordly indiscretions. 



.» 



24; 

is well worthy of the historic canvas ; and, though we have not a Vernet 
nor a De la Roche to do the story justice, it might at least be consigned to 
the patriotic Ackernian, who has a genius for such subjects, and a capacious 
paint-shop in Nassau street, near Ann. 

It may be considered rather fortunate, in some points of view, that we 
have not the keen and terrific ])erceptive faculties of a Trumbull or an Ingres, 
to group around the retiring chieftain, as he slowly picks his way through the 
blinding snow-storm, which aptly accompanies the close of his career, the 
fleshless forms and eyeless sockets of the hundred thousand dead, whose re- 
proachful moans niingle with the wind that drifts Fitz Ctesar from the field. 
That would furnish a painful recollection to the President and the People, 
i-ack many a parent's bosom, and fill many a widow's eyes with tears ; while, 
on the other hand, the buoyant brush of Ackerman, charged with its usual 
cheerful lights, could represent him in the most glowing print-shop fashion, 
looking three ways with equal strength of feature, and severally labeled 
Ca3sar, Marlborough, and McOlellan. 

The removal of Little Mac has, of course, occasioned much discussion, and 
the Secessionists, who relied upon him to hold the army by the bridle till the 
North could be sickened into peace, even at the price of any shame, are, of 
course, infuriate at this interference with their god. Nay, they even threaten 
the Government, that, unless he be again restored to power, they will retaliate 
by insurrection; but all loyal men rejoice, and the Democracy, who recently 
rebuked the Government for its long inaction in the field, feel that their late 
verdict for the vigorous prosecution of the war was not cast by them in 
vain. 

The malignants have, of course, already raised the outcry that Little Mac has 
been sacrificed while moving on the enemy ; but the Country, which has been ' 
lied to sufficiently in his behalf, is on this occasion very well advised. We 
have before us, in connection with the act of his dismissal, the statement of 
Gen. Halleck, to the eifect that he was deliberately betraying the country by 
his persistent disobedience of orders; and that ho did not scruple to circulate 
direct falsehoods over his own signature, by way of evading his obligations to 
the Government. That, in the Peninsula, he telegraphed to the President he 
had but fifty thousand effective men left in his army, while, when Mr. Lincoln 
went down there, he learned, by questioning the corps commanders separately, 
that Oajsar had just 80,730. He complained from Sharpsburg he could n'ot 
obey the repeated orders of Gen. Halleck and the President to move, because 
of the delay in clothing and supplies; but this declaration was invalidated by 
the testiraony of his own Quartermaster (Ingalls), who telegraphed, slap in 
his face, that "the reports of the want of clothing in the array of the Potomac 
were exaggerated." Subsequently (12th October), he strongly complained 
that the rate of his supply of horses was "only one hundred and fifty a week, 
for the entire army there and in front of "Washington ;" but Gen. Meigs nailed 
this allegation to the counter, two days after (14th October), by showing that 
the steady supply for the previous six M^eeks had been one thousand four 
hundred and fifty-nine per week, or eight thousand seven hundred and fifty- 
four in all. Thus convicted. Little Mac, reluctantly, retracted his insinua- 
tions against Meigs in writing; but subsequently said that, "though hecertainly 
did not impute want of veracity to Gen. Meigs, he would remark that his 
report of the 14th was, in substance, incorrect." And, to cap the climax of 
these extraordinary statements and counter-statements, we are informed he 
has written to William II. Aspinwall, of this city, that, notwithstanding the 
public outcry on the subject of the reserve, at Antietam, there were but three 
.thousand men in all Fitz John Porter's corps, who were not fully engaged 
during the progress of that action. Per contra, we have the statement of two 



25 

Major-Generals, made to onrsclf, and of all of the reporters present at Antie- 
tani, that none of the troops of Fitz Yellow Kids were brought into action in 
that battle, and that the idle soldiers who were refused to Pleasanton and 
Burnside, when the enemy miglit have been demolished, numbered nearly 
thirty thousand. 

But enough of Fitz Napoleon for the present. He is now lodged at Tren- 
ton, where he can do no harm, and a loyal soldier holds the baton which he 
has disgraced. But the country have now a right to demand that he be tried, 
and we hope that the degradation of his friend Fitz John, who is now on his 
way to Washington to answer the serious charge of treason on the field of 
Centreville, will be speedily followed by the similar arraignment of Fitz 
Napoleon himself. 



THE NEW LEADER. 



New York, November 22, 1862, ) 

Office of Wilkes' Spikit of the Tijmes. f 

The new chieftainship of the Army in Virginia seems to have given satis- 
faction to the country, and already Little Mac, with his faint hold on glory, 
has lost his prismatic colors and faded from public recollection like a vapor, 
Contrary to the truculent prognostications of his previous admirers, there was 
no mutiny among the troops at the prospect of losing his invaluable presence; 
and it is thought very doubtful if he would have been greeted even with a 
single cheer, had he not artfully secured the escort of his handsome and 
popular successor. 

This presentation of himself by Little Mac to the drawn-np divisions of 
the army was tjie last card which tlie little hero played ; and, by-the-bye, 
he must have been utterly astounded, after what his flatterers had promised 
him, that the experienced veterans of the Peninsula did not break ranks, and 
swear grimly by their bayonets he should not be thus rudely torn away. 
But they did nothing of the kind, and the worst feature of the disappoint- 
ment was, that it was really doubtful whether the acclaim was meant for 
Burnside or for him. 

It certainly cannot be said that Burnside did not act generously by him, 
in giving him so liberal a chance to test his strength, and in lavishing such 
kind and courtly terms on one whom the Government had so ignominiously 
condemned. Indeed, this courtesy on Burnside's part was thought to be 
rather a stretch of military rule, and, in that point of view, the friends of the 
latter have not hesitated to declare, that Fitz Napoleon acted very meanly in 
not returning even so much as one grateful word to the new chieftain in re- 
ply. Perhaps they are exacting, but that Fitz Ca3sar should at least have 
said to the soldiers, he found a consolation in his retirement in the fact 
that his b?.ton had been transferred to an able harfd, is clear. That utter 
nonpareil, Fitz John, performed the same churlish role in turning over his 
command to Hooker; but the poutings and sulkiness of these discarded char- 
latans are of no earthly consequence to either of their firm successors; while 
■we can freely answer for the gallant Hooker, that Fitz John's omission of 
such proper deference can provoke from the veteran nothing but a burst of 
laughter. 

The army being thus relieved, and the tears all dried, Gen. Burnside 
addressed himself at once to the reorganization of the main commands; and 
we get from him, under date of the 14th, an order dividing the whole force 



26 

into tliree grand sections, the first consisting of two full corps (Varmee^ compos- 
ing the right section under Sumner; the second, on the left, which is also of 
two corps^ being assigned to Gen. Franklin, while Hooker is to lead the 
centre. There Burnside will locate himself — there he can superintend the 
action of both wings and centre— and there, too, he will have the advantage 
of the constant counsel of that incomparable leader. 

Of this arrangement we have but a word or two to say. First, that 
Sumner, though as loyal a soldier and as true a gentleman as ever breathed, 
is not characterized by much military dash or genius, while Franklin will be 
recollected as one of the intense members of the McClellan set. We have 
met Gen. Franklin, have no prejudices against him, but we cannot forget the 
poor show he made with his division at West Point, in the Peninsula, nor 
the more than doubtful part he played under the manipulation of McClellan, 
on the road to Centreville. The first affair was characterized by Gen. Kearney 
as " a run-away picket fight," and the last, we regret to say, was no fight at 
all. Under all these circumstances, and despite the general good-will toward 
him, there will be many to regret that Burnside has reposed in him so im- 
portant a command. As the disasters of Pupe resulted largely from Franklin 
not getting forward in time, and as disasters now, to Burnside, would proba- 
bly give rise to new clamors for the restoration of McClellan, the action of 
Franklin in his new command will doubtless invite the keenest scrutiny from 
first to last. We hope, therefore, he may have the good fortune to entitle 
himself to the best opinion of the country ; and, should triumph await our 
arms under his leadership, no one will more heartily rejoice in his success 
than we. 

As for Burnside, though we believe the majority of the People expected 
to see the baton in the bold grasp of Hooker, we are satisfied that his eleva- 
tion has aflforded a pleasant relief from the precarious and alarming adminis- 
tration of McClellan. He is, however, a loyal soldier and an honorable gen- 
tleman, and the insinuations set afioat, tliat he is a mere follower of Little 
Mac, is a gross insult on his talents. Being the special choice of the Presi- 
nent, it has been said, too, that his appointment is a compromise with Seward 
on the latter's protest against the removal of Napoleon ; but if this be true, 
and the wily Premier who "abominates the sword." has accepted of him as 
the least onward man, after Gen. Tortoise, we will venture the prediction 
that he will be seriously disappointed. Gen. Burnside is too true a man to 
accept of the Little Wizard's assurances in preference to the reliance of his 
sword; and we feel entirely satisfied, that a full onward movement will soon 
be made, and that substantial victories will early crown our arms. 



THE MODERN ARNOLD. 



FITZ JOHN BRANDED AND TURNED LOOSE. 



Nkw Yobk, January 24, 1863, \ 

Office of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 
There are some offenses so utterly revolting to the instincts of our nature, 
that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be made amenable to compre- 
hension; some turpitudes so appalling, and so at variance with all the whole- 
some laws of reason, that even the clearest minds will, for a time, resist 
them with every resource of doubt. Of this description is the frightful and 



27 

unnatural crime, which a court of honorable soldiers has just fixed upon the 
man heretofore known as General Fitz John Porter, 

Previous to the present war, the records of the country presented one 
character so pre-eminent in infamy, as to entitle it to figure as a type of 
wickedness, scarcely to be equaled, and never to be mentioned, except as a 
warning or a curse. That character was Arnold's, and so earnest against it 
has always been the detestation of the people, that his name, by constant 
deprecation, has become current with the outside world, in connection with 
our language, as an accepted sign of baseness of the deepest shade. But 
there were relieving traits in Arnold's treason which make it almost toler- 
able, when viewed in comparison with the execrable perfidy of Fitz John 
Porter. Arnold had been born a subject of Great Britain, his fealty had 
but lately been transposed, and his new allegiance, so far as the obligations 
of duration are to be considered, was but lightly rooted. Moreover, he was 
a man of brilliant talents and daring bravery, and, following tliese impulses, 
had rendered signal service to his new country, which he fancied had been 
invidiously overlooked. Fitz John Porter, on the other hand, had been 
born under the flag which he betrayed, and his meagre qualities, and more 
than meagre courage, had always been pampered and rewarded far beyond 
their weight. Sent from New Hampshire, to the National Academy, he had 
been reared and educated among her most favored children, and, when ac- 
complished to the extreme of the nation's bounty, was embarked in its in- 
dulgent service with a rank which is esteemed, in other lands, to be a proper 
beginning for a Prince. Gratitude and devotion were to be expected for 
these gracious kindnesses; and chiefly were the sympathies and services of 
the recipient to be expected, by the section or State under whose patronage 
he had attained his position in the world. Ilis sympathies, predilections, 
associations, and opinions, however, were found to be in opposition to these 
instincts, and his career soon became marked with a hostility to all the ideas 
and the sentiments which were identified with the region of his youth. 

Passing over the pro-chivalry Mexican campaign — a crusade in which 
everybody was brevetted, whether deserving it or not — we find him figuring 
in the Mormon war, and always exercising an influence in council that pre- 
vented chastisement to treason. Becoming soon afterward a pet of Floyd's, 
he was sent by that miscreant — at a time when he had matured his plunder 
of the public arsenals — on a confidential mission to Fort Sumter. The osten- 
sible pretense was an inspection of its strength, and, while there, the auxiliary 
of the perfidious Secretary performed his mission in behalf of the Confeder- 
ates,"and prepared for the betrayal of the work by insidiously suggesting to 
the loyal soldier in command, that, were he in charge, '•'■he would not attempt 
to defend the work, if attacked from the land side." 

The next theatre of Fitz John's performances was in Virginia, while 
acting as Chief-of-staflT, under Patterson, during the first memorable battle of 
Bull Piun. The public know the history of that deplorable atfair, and they 
need not be told by us, that it Was the failure of the force of Patterson — that 
was virtually under the direction of Porter — to engage Johnson or to reinforce 
McDowell, which caused the carnage and disasters of that dreadful day. From 
thence, we trace Porter as the leading adviser of the long and inglorious 
inactivity before Manassas ; the engineer who protracted the disgraceful 
siege of Yorktown ; the strategist who deliberately planted his batteries in 
a ravine (in one of the seven days' battles), instead of on a height, while he 
streamed his regiments before a raking fire of the enemy ; the beau sabreur 
■who fled precipitately from the sneers of brave McCall, when the butternut 
lines were advancing upon them at Gaines' Mill; the traitor who failed Pope 
at Centreville, and the ungrateful comrade who, when Burnside was sinking 



28 

under the accnnuilatecl weight of Hill and Lonpstreet, at Antietam, refused 
reinforcements out of the thirty thousand, which had stood idle under him, 
during all the fierce temptations of that day, Ilis Avhole career, therefore, 
is one consistent current of darkly suspicious acts; and, at the end, he stands 
convicted by tlie solemn judgment of his peers, of a villainy which exceeds 
the measure of the worst that has been thought of him before. It is seldom 
that, in the course even of the longest life, one man has the opportunity for 
so much evil as Fitz John Porter found in the space of twenty months; and 
that he improved all the occasions wliich were thus presented, no one who 
has read the testimony in the recent trial, and been an observer of his pre- 
vious career, can, for a moment, doubt. 

The charges against him in that proceeding were, that having, wliile at 
Warrenton Junction, Va., on the evening of the 2'7th August last, received an 
urgent onler from General Pope to move forward at one o'clock on the fol- 
lowing morning to Bristow Station (which was but nine miles distant), in 
order to be able to attack the enemy at daylight; he deliberately disobeyed 
that order, went to sleep upon it, and did not begin to move his men till day- 
light. The second charge was, that on the day but one afterward, to wit : 
the 29th August, he, while in sight of the enemy, at the distance of but a mile 
and a half for seven hours, did, after receiving an order to attack, shamefully 
turn his back upon the foe, whose inferior force he might easily have crushed, 
and march from the sound of the hostile cannon with his whole division, thus 
leaving the exhausted federal forces to be outnumbered and driven disastrously 
back upon Arlington Heights and Alexandria. Both of these charges were 
conclusively established, and so strongly were some of the witnesses per- 
suaded, even before the treason of the second day, that Porter intended, 
according to the words of the lamented Kearney, "to fail Pope," that one of 
them declared to Pope "he would shoot him that night, so far as any crime 
before God was concerned, if the law would but allow it." Pope, however, 
could not realize that Porter meditated such fatal disobedience; but, sure 
enough, the morning came without his presence, and it was ten o'clock before 
the defaulting chief, who had performed the same manoeuvre at the first Bull 
Kun, made his appearance with his troops. The meditated pursuit of the 
enemy could not then be made, and our advantages passed barren from our 
hands. Upon this point the Judge Advocate, in his masterly recital of the 
case, disposes of the pretense of the culprit, that he believed he would have 
got along faster by delaying until daylight, in the following words: 

" Nor is it believed that the conduct of the accused finds any shelter in the 
Napoleonic maxim quoted in the argument for the defense. The discretion it allows 
to a subordinate, separated from his superior officer, is understood to relate to the 
means, and not the end of an order. When the accused determined that, instead of 
starting at one o'clock, he would start at three or four, he did not resolve that he 
would arrive at Bristow Station by daylight in a different manner from that indi- 
cated by his commanding general, but that he would not arrive there by daylight 
at all." 

The testimony on the second charge makes some astounding revelations. 
It appears that, on the morning of the 2i)th, Porter and McDowell were or- 
dered to move forward together on a given road, and follow it till they met 
the enemy, unless McDowell, who ranked Fitz John, should decide that any 
considerable advantages were to be gained by pursuing a difterent course. 
On arriving at a certain point in their march, McDowell decided that the 
commands had better »be separated, and informing the accused that he 
(McDowell) would move on with his division and attack the enemy upon the 
centre, directed him to take a road leading to the left, where the ascending 
dust showed that the enemy might there be taken in the flank. The accused, 



29 

however, instead of receiving the order witli the spirit of a soldier, merely 
pointed witli his liand to the dust rising above the trees, aud remarked, "We 
cannot go in there, anywhere, without getting into a figlit." The answer of 
McDowell was--" Tliat's what we came for!" Saying which, being full of 
his business, he hurriedly rode off. Porter then, in a mere semblance of obe- 
dience, ordered a portion of his forces, under Griffin, to move forward, but, 
when they had advanced about six hundred 3'ards, he directed them to halt. 
In this position he remained till after five o'clock, P. M., with his thirteen 
thousand well-appointed men, perfectly idle before an inferior number of the 
foe, who all the while were contributing to harass and overwhelm our centre. 
Amazed at Porter's absence from the fight. Pope at length sent him an order, 
dated at half-past four, P. M., "to push forward into action at once, on the 
enemy's right flank, and, if possible, upon his rear." This order was de- 
livered to him at half-past five; he received it while lying down under a 
shade-tree, and, without attempting to obey, he continued reposing in the 
same manner, during the twenty minutes the messenger remained. In notic- 
ing the testimony on this point, Judge Ilolt employs the following language : 

"The accused had, for between five and six hours, been listening to the sounds 
of the battle raging immediately to his right. Its dust and smoke were before his 
eyes, and the reverberation of its artillery was in his ears. He must have known 
the exhaustion and carnage consequent upon this prolonged conflict, and he had 
reason to believe, as shown by his note to Generals McDowell and King, that our 
army was giving way before the heavy reinforcements of the enemy. He had a 
command of some thirteen thousand fresh and well-appointed troops, who had 
marched but a few miles, and had not fought at all on that day. Under these cir- 
cumstances, should not an order to charge the enemy have electrified him as a sol- 
dier, and have brought him not only to his feet and to his saddle, but have 
awakened the sounds of eager preparation throughout his camp ? But the bugle 
note of this order seems to have fallen unheeded, and after reading it, and at the 
close of an interview of from fifteen to twenty minutes, the messenger who bore it 
turned away, leaving the accused still ' lying on the ground.' " 

In a little while after the departure of the messenger, Porter gave an order 
to fall back, and deliberately retired altogether from the theatre of the still 
raging battle. All this was known two days afterward by McClellan, yet he 
retained Fitz John as his chief corps commander, and permitted him to per- 
form the same part, with thirty thousand men, at the subsequent battle of 
Antietam, 

The defense which Porter set np, to excuse his not moving, during the 
whole of the afternoon previous to the reception of General Pope's order, is 
equally heinous with his conduct, and at once betrays the utter rottenness 
and corruption of his case. He assumes that having, in the early part of the 
day, marched forward with McDowell, who ranked him when they were 
together, he considered himself all the while still under his command, and 
consequently felt justified in resting idle, by a message brought him from 
McDowell, some time after noon, to remain where he was, if he could do no 
better. This proof, -shallow as it is, he attempts to make by a Lieut.-Col. 
Locke, his chief of staff, who says that when Gen, McDowell had been in- 
formed by a message just received from Gen. Porter of his intention to fall 
back, that he, McDowell, remarked, Porter had better remain where he was, 
and that he, Locke, delivered these words as an order to Gen. Porter. On 
being cro.ss-exarained, Locke stated that these words had been uttered by 
McDowell in the presence of General King, and were heard by him. General 
McDowell, however, testifies that no such message was sent by him, and 
General ICing swears " he was not with General McDowell that afternoon ;" 
nevertheless, the culprit urged, with an unparalleled effrontery, that, though 



30 

tlie statement to him by Locke, of the reception of such message from Mc- 
Dowell was untrue, yet such an order was delivered by Locke to him, and 
that he was therefore justified in entertaining and obeying it. No stronger 
revelation than this can be required of the utter worthlessness of the entire 
defense. The same witness who falsely deposed to the receipt of the message 
from McDowell testified to its delivery to Porter ; and it is clear that the 
culprit must have considered his case desperate, indeed, .when he clung for 
his safety to what remained of credit in the words of such a witness. 

" But there is one feature of the inaction of the accused on the 29th," says 
Judge-Advocate Holt, "which it is especially sorrowful to contemplate. How, 
with the cannonade of the battle in his ears, and its smoke, and the dust of the 
gathering forces before his eyes, he could, for seven and a half or eight hours, resist 
the temptation to plunge into the combat, it is difficult to conceive. But this alone 
is not the saddest aspect in which his conduct presents itself. Colonel Marshall 
states that, from the cheerings and peculiar yells of the enemy heard on the even- 
ing of the 29th, he and every man of his command believed that General Pope's 
army was being driven from the field." 

It is further stated by Judge Holt, that the members of the Court were 
convinced, from the testimony, " that a vigorous attack upon the enemy by 
the accused, at any time between twelve o'clock, when the battle began, and 
dark, when it closed, w^ould have secured a triumph for our arms, and not 
only the overthrow of the rebel forces, but probably the destruction of Jack- 
son's army." This opinion, in effect, is emphatically expressed by Generals 
Pope, McDowell, and Eoberts, and by Lieut. Col. Smith, all of whom ])artici- 
pated in the engagement, and were well qualified to judge. Gen Roberts, 
who was on the field throughout the day, says : "I do not doubt at all that it 
would have resulted in the defeat, if not in the capture of the main army of 
the Confederates that were in the field at that time." To the same effect is 
the ex])licit language of Gen. Pope, while McDowell says that "even had the 
attack itself failed, the number of troops which would have been withdrawn 
from the main battle by the enemy to effect this result, would have so far 
relieve our centre as to render our victory complete." 

Upon such revelations and such proofs as these, did the court unanimously 
find Fitz John Porter guilty of the crimes alleged against him ; and upon their 
verdict did the President strike the malefactor from the rolls, and declare 
him to be hereafter utterly unfit to wear a sword, or to hold any oflice of 
trust or profit under the Government of the United States. It was a punish- 
ment far short of the measure of the crime; for the culprit should have been 
run up to a limb, or, at least, led out and shot. But the President, doubtless, 
credited him with some remaining sensibility to human shame, and therefore 
judged it to be a keener penalty to force him to live and walk about among 
his jformer fellow- men, Avith a brand upon his forehead which stamps him not 
only as the murderer of Kearney and of Stevens, but the real betrayer of An- 
tietam and both battles of Bull Run. lie, therefore, stalks an outcast, bearing 
upon his brow the mark of Cain, inviting, but for the decorum of the law, the 
pistol of every loyal man, and worthy only of the commiseration of the Chief 
who so unduly pampered and advanced him. 

It remains to be seen, whether the morals of the time are so depraved, and 
whether Massacre and Treason have become so venial in the new calendar of 
public duty, that that patriotic chieftain will again recognize, or take this 
modern Arnold by the hand. To our mind, the fact that he can walk about 
unharmed amid a population whose children he has so ruthlessly betrayed to 
death, is the most alarming symptom of the hopeless degeneracy of public 
spirit, and the lowness of the ebb of an ordinary love of country. 

We know of no destiny which can now be proper for him, but to be passed 
at once to the Confederate lines; or to be sent ignominiously to Trenton, to 
become a senatorial candidate for the Copperhead Democracy of New Jersey. 



31 
TETE D'ARMEE. 



New York, January 31, 1863. ) 
Office of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. ) 
As we go to press, the welcome intelligence comes in that Gen. Hooker 
has been appointed to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and that 
Gens. Franklin and Sumner have been relieved of their commands. These 
are cheering tidings, and we date from them the sure salvation of the country. 
The removal of Franklin and Sumner from their commands is in accordance 
with the terms laid down by Gen. Hooker before he would agree to accept 
the direction of the army ; and it indicates, also, with sufficient clearness, that 
Hooker is to be entirely untrammeled in his place. We shall now soon have 
victories and earnest action, inst&a^ of mysterious strategy and continual de- 
feat. With Kosecrans in the West and Hooker in the East, there is not 
treason enough in the North, rebellion enough in the South, or imbecility or 
cross purposes sufficient in the Cabinet, to prevent the war for the Union 
from being brought to an early and satisfactory conclusion. We congratulate 
the country and our readers on the great preliminary towards that glorious 
result, in the appointment of Gen, Hooker to the command of the Army of 
the North and East; and, at the same time, take a small share of felicitation 
to ourselves for having so persistently urged tbe accomplished veteran's ad- 
vancement. In like manner we felicitate ourselves on the successful ex- 
posures which we have made of the incapacity of Fitz Cassar, the treason of 
Fitz John, and the generally doubtful and dangerous qualities of the entire 
McClellan set. " Little Mac " and his satellites will no longer be a nightmare 
to the minds of the loyal people of this country, for the career of the new 
commander of the army of the North will as elfectually dispose of the mili- 
tary pretension of the dandy dress-circle Napoleon, as the trial of Fitz 
John Porter fixed the character of his strategy with Pope, between Alexan- 
dria and Centreville in August last. The country is safe ; and the utmost 
mischiefs which seditious home traitors can perform will all be rendered nuil 
and void by the invigorating influence of Hooker's actions. Victory to our 
arms is defeat not only of the rebels, but confusion to the seditious scoundrels 
who are plotting for the Confederates in our midst. 



McCLELLAN-A RETROSPECT. 



New York, March Y, 1862, ( 

Office of Wilkes' Spirit of tue Times. [ 
" Unto my God three times I daily boiv, 
But, little coxcomb knight, pray what art thou?" 

There appears to be a decided inclination among the loyal papers of the 
country, encouraged, it would seem, by thQ tranquil temper of the Govern- 
ment, to regard everything at present in a sanguine spirit ; and with a praise- 
worthy buoyancy to carry tl:i*s disposition to the extent of deprecating even 
the least misgiving of success. We share the cheerfulness, and, so far as a 
fair reliance on the future is concerned, claim that no confidence is grounded 
deeper than our own. Nevertheless, we are not forgetful of the fact, that it 
is in these periods of promise the greatest evils take us unawares, nor have 
we overlooked the multiplying signs that a concentrated elfort is on foot to 
bring McClellan back. 



32 

We are sure we do not over-estimate this danger. When the history of 
this \i ar is fully written, the treasons traced from which it sprnng, and the 
subsequent perfidies which crippled its impulses are exposed, the latter will 
be regarded as the crowning infamies of all. The original traitors who 
figured in the foreground will, in this final picture, take the second place, 
and posterity reserve its chiefest execrations for patriots now prominent 
within our lines. Enormous as the crime is, there still may be degrees to 
treason ; and the simplest capacity may comprehend the monstrous width be- 
tween an ordinary rebel and a traitor who, like Fitz John Porter, betrays his 
country and his comrades at the same time. 

This degraded oflicer is the type of a class which, by some affinity, have, 
from the first, centred round McClellan. Their politics were " conservative ;" 
their proclivities Southern ; their doctrines were pro-slavery, and they held 
that the revolt had been provoked by Northern intermeddling. Their mili- 
tary views were consistent with their mo^al sentiments. It was agreed that, 
tinder the distressing circumstances of the case, no decisive battles should be 
fought, and the favorite tactics of the field, when a show of battle was re- 
quired, were to be light and ineffective attacks and — never reinforcements. 
We do not assume that all of the members of this military clan were inten- 
tional and premeditated traitors. But few of them would have abandoned 
their associates in arms, or have willfully betrayed their country, like Fitz 
Porter; but they had all become so perverted by injurious association, 
and so swerved by habit from a correct plan of duty, that one-half their 
moral influences went with the Confederates, and thus fought for the oppos- 
ing cause. This anomalous state of things at our headquarters became, of 
course, early known to the secession leaders, and it is not too much to say, 
that high appointments in the Federal army were as frequently besought 
from Davis at the court of Richmond, as applied for through the regular rou- 
tine of the capitol at Washington. 

If this state of affairs was understood by Davis, it was no less appreciated 
and improved by certain important personnges in the neighborhood of Mr. 
I^incoln. These personages did not agree with all the ideas of our military 
umpires, but their theories were in the main equally ''conservative;" and, 
therefore, it was not difficult for them to come to a perfect understanding. 
The agreement on one side seems to have been, that no decisive battles 
should be fought; on the other, it was guaranteed, that compromise and con- 
cession should supply the place of subjugation, and that the icrongs of our 
erring Southern brethren should be entirely redressed. Which party of nego- 
tiators were to cheat the other in the subsequent distributions of the after- 
piece, it is not material for us just now to speculate. The game is not yet 
closed, but superior rascality will be sure to strike the balance. 

McClellan came forward with every opportunity to perform a shining 
part. It is true he was backed by no substantial prestige. lie had entered 
the Mexican war a lieutenant and came out one, had figured through it merely 
as a clever stone-mason, and became subsequently an indifferent railroad en- 
gineer. But the blazon of his bulletins over the victories of Rosecrans, in 
the miniature campaign of AVestern Virginia, brought him before the country 
with a glow ; and the enthusiastic, wisliful people were willing to take him 
in trust, as a new Napoleon. Feeling thi>s secjure in his new position, the 
policy of masterly inactivity was regularly inaugurated, and a reticence 
adopted, which was supposed to be peculiarly in keeping with a man of 
genius. His inauguration began in August, and three months of mighty ex- 
pectations were exhausted, with an inconsiderable enemy before us, whom 
our idle soldiers were burning to attack. Among the most restive for assault 
was a noble Senator, whose martial spirit, eager of example, gladly sought the 



3S 

sacrifices of the camp. And, probably on account of liis rank, and as he 
might be too critical in the Senate, should he be constantly denied his wish, 
it was thought advisable to let him have a fight. He got it at Ball's Bluff, 
was wiped out like a leaf by the breath of the simoom, and his voice was 
never heard in the Senate hall agani. He was the first victim of the pro- 
found strategy of weak attacks without subsequent supports ; and Stone, who 
was the helpless agent of the main engineer, was unduly held responsible for 
the disastrous result. 

The next instance of this novel strategy was at Williamsburg, in the Pen- 
insula, where Hooker, after seven hours' fighting, applied in vain for aid from 
the thirty thousand men who stood all day within the sound of battle. Gen. 
Sumner would willingly have granted them, but his orders from McClellan 
were imperative, and the enemy were consequently suffered to escape. At 
Fair Oaks, Casey's division was sacrificed to the same suicidal tactics ; while 
at Malvern, where the stubborn valor of our troops won a brilliant victory, 
despite the incon.petency of the general, brave officers burst into tears, and 
some, like Martindale, who saw we might then have pressed the tide of for- 
tune into Richmond, almost resolved to share the fate of the poor fellows 
whom the craven order to retreat forced them to leave to the mercy of the 
enemy. At Oentreville, the policy of "no reinforcements" again developed 
itself, in a manner not to be mistaken. Pope had been bravely busy for 
thirty-seven days in occupying the attention of the enemy, so that Napoleon 
could escape from the scene of his glories in the Chickahominy ; and when 
he had a right to expect the extricated hero to turn to his assistance, he 
found that he sullenly and deliberately abandoned him to ruin. He asked 
him for reinforcements, and he refused them. The President, then, on his 
own responsibility, ordered Franklin forward, but the contumacious Caesar 
stopped him on the road. Finally, Pope begged a little forage for his starv- 
ing cavalry, but Mac denied this also, and, in keeping with the act, Fitz John 
Porter at the same moment turned his back upon the front, and forced the 
Western general, who was thus hopelessly betrayed, to fall precipitately back. 
All the country understood this act, and expected to see McClellan and his 
satellites made the subjects of a corporal's guard. They did not bargain, 
however, for the influences of the other parties to the compact we have 
heretofore alluded to, and, consequently, were perfectly amazed to behold 
Little Mac not only emerge from his complication, but actually sail off 
again in full command, with Fitz John Porter and all his satraps smiling in 
his train. 

He went apparently in pursuit of Lee, but, instead of cutting off his retreat 
by a rapid flank march to Harper's Ferry, he lounged leisurely after him, over 
good roads, at the rate of five miles a day, with the view of getting in his 
front, and shooing him harmlessly out of the State. Lee remained in Mary- 
land for full nine days, and then, reeling with plunder, left at his leisure, 
sending Jackson in advance to capture Harper's Ferry, as a bonne ho^tche, and 
to cover his retreat. Franklin was within seven miles of this ill-fated post, 
with a whole division, and listened tamely to its bombardment for several 
hours. Its unfortunate cominailder had been begging earnestly for rein- 
forcements for two days, the President had ordered McClellan to relieve it, 
and 7ie reported he had transmitted orders to Franklin to that effect. But 
reinforcements were ignored in the " conservative " tactics of the strategic 
generals, and, with this so-called "order" in his pocket, Franklin remained 
stock still, and permitted the important post to fall. Lee, then, elated by 
his fortune, and disdaining the man with whom he had to deal, seems to have 
been seized with the idea of trying whether McClellan would fight, under any 
circumstances whatever; so, with but fifty-five thousand effective men, he 
had the hardihood to take position, with a river in his rear, against a force 

3 



9i| 

posted on a rising ground, and nnmbering, at the least, one hundred and 
twenty thousand men. 

The history of the action is well known. Hooker opened it, and, while 
driving the enemy in splendid style, went down with a shot in the foot. It 
was well for him that he did. He would soon have needed reinforcements^ 
and, not getting them, would probably have fallen with a ball iu the head. 
That had been the fate of Baker, at Ball's Bluff"; of Kearney and Stevens, at 
Ohantilly ; and the early hour at which Hooker got his wound warded him 
from the fate of the example, and doubtless saved him to the country. 

The battle went on feebly, lingering all that day without one grand attack; 
and presently, when night approached, Burnside required reinforcements. 
The reporter of the Tribune describes his aide arriving at headquarters with 
a request for help. The General turned an inquiring look towards Fitz Por- 
ter, his familiar, who stood at his elbow with thirty thousand unused men. 
That practiced soldier, says tlie admiring chronicler, gravely and slowly shook 
his head, whereupon, McClellan replied to the imploring ofHcer — " Tel! Gen- 
eral Burnside he must hold his position until dark ; that this is the battle of 
the war!" The young reporter doubtless took the secret correspondence, 
which passed between the eyes of the two chief actors of this scene, for mili- 
tary prescience and profundity. The readers of the Spirit will, however, 
doubtless translate it at this period in a different way. 

This battle was, to us, the most disgraceful of the war. The enemy, hj 
McClellan's own admission, slept upon a portion of the field, and yet he had 
the eff"rontery to ]>roclaini it as a victory. On the following day, though we 
had thirty thousand fresh reserves, the enemy were allowed to bury their 
dead and repose within our view, and the next night they moved leisurely off 
without the loss of another man. To finish the climax, the commander-in- 
chief, as if in a spirit of half malicious waggery, reminds us, on the third day, 
of the picture of Pickwick playfully chasing his hat, by tlie suggestive tele- 
gi'aphic line, 

" Pleasanton with his cavalry is in close pursuit of the enemy." 

It was a fit epilogue to the disgraceful scenes of Centreville, and a worthy 
instance, in the line of precedents, to warrant the subsequent tactics of Frank- 
lin before Fredericksburg. There, too, that worthy follower was ordered to 
attack with all his force, but, instead thereof, he assailed the enemy with but 
two weak divisions under Meade, and then, when that dashing officer had 
actually succeeded in penetrating the Confederate lines, refused to reinforce 
him, and in that way gave the battle to tlie enemy. Thus we find that Mc- 
Clellan, who began by disobeying orders under Scott, who endeavored to ex- 
change the Capitol of Washington for Richmond in the Peninsula, Avho 
abandoned Pope to the mercy of the foe at Centreville, who would not put 
the rebels to the sword at Antietam, and who flatly refused to obey the or- 
ders of the President to follow them to Winchester, actually controlled the 
destiny of the army until Fredericksburg, though ignominiously expelled from 
its command in the first week in November. He did not go into exile, how- 
ever, i;ndefended or without angry protests in his favor. The services he 
had rendered to the hostile cause were too signal for him to be left without 
a party; and moreover it was plain he was of just the right material to be 
made a rallying point of opposition to the Government. It is true there was 
not much of the soldier about him, and there were some exceedingly ugly 
associations and incidents in his career; but it was clear that he had the re- 
spect of JefF. Davis and the South, that he was coldly aristocratic and " con- 
servative," and that, as such, he would be au eligible rallying point, until 
the Confederacy could indicate who ultimately should be the common President. 

A Tory howl, therefore, was at once set up in McClellan's favor, the cry 
of persecutipo was put upon the wind, and, with a barefacedness which at 



m 

first made everybody laugh, it was claimed that he was a military genius equal 
to the first Napoleon. The figure of Rosecrans careering in the front of battle, 
taking the red baptism from a fellow-soldier's blood, reflected rather inju- 
riously upon our strategic hero's prestige, but the resolute lying of a host of 
venal organs succeeded in keeping him apparently upon his feet, and he is 
at this moment urged — aye, gravely and powerfully urged — for restoration to 
the important post from which Halleck has supplanted him. 

We conceive no calamity greater than this could be visited upon the 
country. "We believe, indeed, that it would be utter ruin, and that the mili- 
tary prestige of the nation would soon expire under an extension of the feeble 
non-supporting policy, which betrayed us at Ball's Bluff, Williamsburg, Fair 
Oaks, Malvern, Centreville, Antietam, Harper's Ferry, and Fredericksburg. 
We now want a concentrated and vigorous policy, and not a future dilution 
of our strength ; and if Halleck is short of the requirements of his office, and 
not up to the occasion, we should look for a successor in bold Ben Butler, 
and not in the stupid, ineffective, and not over loyal little railroad engineer, 
who was afraid to move upon the rebels at Manassas, andliever once willingly 
gave them battle afterwards. 

The President must be exceedingly cautious how he acts in this business ; 
and he had better, for once, read the loyal papers a little on the subject. 
The people are still in a temper to submit to much that is unpalatable, out of 
respect for his intentions, but we warn him they are not prepared to have the 
destinies of the country passed into the hands of an intractable military 
despot, nor their liberties confided to the tender mercies of the virulent faction 
which he represents. But that we have good reason to believe Mr. Seward 
is even now making the question of McClellan's restoration an alternative, for 
something which the President desires from him, we would not honor the 
little strategist with this review ; and we feel, therefore, that it would be a 
gross neglect of duty, did we fail to put in a timely protest. We have merely 
to add, that should Mr. Lincoln yield to this application for McClellan, Mr. 
Seward may fairly boast of having made the last convert to "conservatism," 
that is necessary to make his rule imperial. 



LITTLE MAC. 



New York, March 14, 1863, ) 

Office of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. \ 

" This is the state of man ; to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, 
And then he falls . ' ' 

Little Mac is bitterly testing the philosophy of the poet. Since his bril- 
liant campaign among the Eastern Tories, he has been abruptly sent for to the 
Capitol, and from the blushing acknowledgment of " conservative" swords, 
designed for a service in opposition to the Government, he is rather peremp- 
torily required to answer why he failed to use that legitimate weapon which 
a too generous country gave him along with his commission. 

The summons seems to have been in a high degree unpleasant, and he 
manoeuvred to evade it by an offer to forward his replies by mail. The 
Senate, however, thinking, probably he had already been long enough directed 
by the counsels of Fitz John Porter, insisted he should answer them in person. 
His journey by the rail, as contrasted with the ovation recently given him 
by the eastern Committees of the Golden Circle, can hardly be regarded as a 



36 

triumph. Not only was the weather cheerless, but he was attended only by 
a single follower ; and it was not his fortune to obtain sleeping quarters in the 
train. His arrival at Willard's, moreover, created not the least sensation, and 
instead of the thronging uniforms in the lobbies, and the stir of silk that rose 
at the tables at the bare appearance of the military favorite of the peace 
Democracy, an absolute indifference reigned on every side. Indeed, during the 
first day of his arrival, it was hardly known that he was in the house. Tliere 
was a time when his satellites could boast for him, in the words of Barlow, 
" there would be a battle only when Mao ordered it ; and there would be- a 
cessation of hostilities and compromise just when he decided." There was 
a time when he rolled into Washington with his household in a laureled car — 
a time when he had foreign princes in his train, and fifty horses in his stall — 
a time when a tutored soldiery, erroneously believing him to be a hero, rent 
the air with vivas at every clatter of his horse's hoofs ; but now, alas for the 
transitory state of bogus greatness, the atmosphere is cold wherein he walks, 
and save the poor retainer, who treads in his shortening shadow, there are 
none so poor to do him reverence. 

But there is no marvel in all this. It is according to the law of human 
measurement. Since Mac was last a client at the Capitol, Fitz John, his 
associate and friend, nay, his intimate and most trusted counselor, has been 
branded as a traitor. Since then, it has been demonstrated by the illustrious 
courage exhibited at Murfreesboro, that a dull pretender has impudently worn 
the honors of Rich Mountain and claimed to be a new Napoleon on the 
strength of a campaign, the whole scope of which is bounded by the casual- 
ties of forty killed and two hundred wounded. Since then, the deliberating 
public mind, cooling under the reflective process, has measured him from 
Ball's Bluff to the unspeakably disgraceful drawn battle at Antietam, and 
finds him wanting, not only in the spirit which desires battle, but also in that 
enthusiasm for his cause, Avithout which no leader can be effective with his 
troops. 

It is not surprising that Little Mac should shrink from the ordeal of the 
Senate, or seek to turn it, by a written answer. "We can imagine several 
questions which it will be exceedingly ugly for him to meet and handl e. He 
will surely require considerable strategy to excuse his early entrance on the 
career of disobedience, as shown by his contemptuous disregard of the orders 
of Gen. Scott. He will need still greater art to account satisfactorily for not 
having acquainted Stone with the fact that he had recalled McCall from 
Drainsville, while Stone was under orders to move on Leesburg as a mere 
auxiliary force. And all his resources of finesse will be called into active 
requisition, not only to excuse his pusillanimous delay before Manassas, but 
the subsequent astounding blunders that stretched between Yorktown and 
the Chickaiiominy. 

According to the testimony of the leading generals of the Army of the 
Potomac, there was not a time in the Peninsula campaign when the Federal 
troops did not outnumber the forces of the enemy ; nor a time when they 
were superior in equipment, material, and spirit. Yet this superb host, which, 
under a proper leader, could have been marched anywhere without repulse, 
was deliberately frittered away, because, as was afterward revealed by Major 
Key, it was " not the programme to win decisive battles." It was Fitz John 
Porter who was the devil of this underplot, and we are willing to believe 
that McOlellan Avas his tool. That recent favorite of the Common Council 
was an adept in the arts of treachery, and went to the Peninsula with a 
record which would have distinguished Judas. It was he who clogged the 
Mormon war against the Government — he who was selected by Floyd to dis- 
hearten the garrison of Sumter against defense — and it was he who, as chief 
of staff of Patterson, permitted Johnston to go from before him unattacked, 



ST' 

to fall in carnage upon our exhausted columns at the first battle of Bull Run. 
An instinctive traitor, he would have betrayed the enemy, had chance locat- 
ed him openly on that side, and he consequently vi^as the most fatal gift which 
the previous misfortunes of the campaign could have conferred upon Mc- 
Clellan. It was to this man that McClellan mainly intrusted what was called 
■ the siege of Yorktown, but which was truly only the siege of death and dis- 
ease against the proudest army of its numbers, which, down to that day, the 
sun had ever shone upon. For weeks, with but an indilferent force before 
them, our buoyant soldiers were led into the damp trenches, to be saturated 
into death with fatal fevers ; and when the fearful farce was end-ed, and the 
enemy had moved off untouched, the Napoleon of the peace Democracy, and 
heir apparent of the Northern Tories, proclaimed to the world he had won a 
brilliant victory! Though the delay thus incurred had protected the con- 
federate capitol with reinforcements, it cost us about ten thousand lives, 
while the discouragement with which it imbued our soldiers' hearts was but 
the forerunner of those calamities which made our legions fugitive from the 
Peninsula, before the end of August. Every soldier has imprinted on his 
memory the general results of that deplorable campaign. It will not satisfy 
the accusations of his memory to be told that "Little Mac is a great hero, a 
second Napoleon, a profound strategist, and the only man to lead the army," 
for in his mind rises the ghastly vision of the seven days' fight, the hurrying 
divisions, the abandoned comrades, and the flying chieftain, foremost in re- 
treat, and seeking an ignominious shelter on a gunboat in the river. It was 
while Little Mac was thus cowering before the sound of the pursuing cannon 
that Andrew f urter, the Provost Marshal of the army, sent him a note say- 
ing that the Army of the Potomac was destroyed, and urging him to save 
himself. It was while he was there, moreover, that Gen. Heiutzelman also 
sent him a note, telling him that the soldiers had discovered his absence, and 
that he could not answer for the consequences unless he came on land and 
showed himself. "Whether Heintzelraan coupled these expressions with an 
assurance to the hero that he would be safe, we are not thoroughly advised, but 
we know that under its pressure Caasar sought the shore, and the next thing 
we hear from him is, about his brilliant " change of base." The panting 
soldiers, who left their wailing comrades in the swamps, knew just what kind 
of "change of base" it was — and with the knowledge still in mind, that the 
very day before the beginning of that prolonged retreat, the little strategist 
had ordered large transportations by the old Yorktown railroad, they are not 
to be imposed upon with the report that the "change" was anything but a 
surprise, and the march otherwise than a precipitate retreat. 

But that seven days' flank movement was not all inglorious. At every op- 
portunity the troops performed prodigies of valor, and, though deprived of 
the presence of their chief commander, they on the last day, at Malvern, 
turned upon the foe and won a victory that was equal to Austerlitz or Wag- 
ram. In fact, they crushed the enemy beneath their feet, and so signal was 
the triumph, that Richmond lay completely at our mercy. Their shouts of 
victory rent the air; but what was their astonishment when, instead of an 
order to charge the retiring rebel lines and advance upon the confederate 
capitol, they received an order to retreat again, and leave our wounded to be 
reclaimed and counted by a flying enemy. It was at this period that numer- 
ous generals wrung their hands in rage, and that Kearney, v/ith honest and 
unbridled anger, denounced the order that imposed such a shameful necessity 
upon our brave soldiers, as proceeding "either from cowardice or treason!" 
The indignant protest of the now sainted hero was made in presence of a 
dozen chafing chieftains, and it wound up with the words — "I, Philip Kear- 
ney, who am an old soldier, make this declaration,.and I hold myself person- 
ally responsible for what I say !" He was not called upon to answer for the 



38 

accusation ; and he is now acquitted of all danger of account, for he perished 
by being overmatched at Chantilly, while McClellan was withholding help §t 
Alexandria, and Fitz John Porter was betraying him at Centreville. 

All these facts are susceptible of plain establishment; and it is likely the 
Committee of the Senate, on the conduct of the war, have propounded ques- 
tions which will reach them. Chief among all the inquiries to McClellan, 
however, have probably been, or should have been, the interrogatories, 
whether he made reports of his battles according to established military rule ; 
and what he did with the reports which his subordinate Generals handed 
over to him ? The commander who could recommend Fitz John Porter to 
the President, with a regret that there was no office high enough to duly 
honor him, should not have neglected this simple justice to his other servants. 
The soldier fights for glory. That expectation cheers him in his toils, compen- 
sates him for his sacrifices, and is an offset, with his kindred, for a gory grave. 
There is no possession so dear to him, or which, when earned, is so profound- 
ly due ; and the pampered chieftain, who, rolling in undeserved applause, is 
capable of withholding this recognition of meritorious service, is far from 
being entitled to retain a hold on the aftections of the troops, and undeserv- 
ing of the least particle of their respect. 

We leave it to the soldier to estimate this crime. And to the public we 
refer the task, of deciding on the moral condition of a mind, which can find 
no subject for its encomiums so worthy as the traitor Fitz John Porter; and 
no cause so congenial as that of those Northern Tories, who are making war 
upon the Government, and who basely advocate a laying down of arms before 
the rebels. 

K Y., March 14, 1863. 
MoClkllan before the Congressional Committee. — McClellan was 
three days before the Congressional Committee on the conduct of the war, 
and though but little direct information was extracted from him, he was 
asked a number of questions which put him to the keenest torture. One of 
the Senators, in describing his demeanor, said, that he had been engaged for 
thirty years in testing witnesses upon the stand, but that he never, in all his 
experience, met one who was so utterly stupid and devoid of self-reliance as 
this child of genius. " The simplest question," said the Senator, ''seems to 
almost throw him into a spasm, and often before answering it, he looks 
around the room, and sometimes turns his eyes over his shoulder, as if 
searching for Fitz John Porter to come to his assistance." Another Senator 
on the same Committee, said that when McClellan was interrogated, it was 
his custom to drop his forehead in |iis hand, and always think a long time 
before answering. That he repeated this performance at every interroga- 
tion ; and that he frequently would rise from his seat, and pace the floor, 
sometimes for five minutes, with his forehead all the while buried in his 
hand, before he could be delivered, in reply. "During the whole three 
days," said this Senator, "we did not extort from him as much as would 
have been extracted from any ordinary witness in an hour." " Perhaps that 
was strategy ?" was the remark of the gentleman who listened. " Ko," said 
the Senator, "it was simply stupidity, and nothing else!" "Did you ask 
him if he had a plan when he was so long before Manassas?" said the gen- 
tleman. " No, it would have taken him six months to have answered that," 
replied the Senator. "Not a moment, for he had no plan," said the gentle- 
man. " Then he would have occupied at least six hours in evading it," was 
the answer. " The fact is," continued the Senator, "he utterly exhausted 
us of our patience by the agony of his dullness, and though I cannot be 
accused of being over tender to him, I, with the other members, out of sheer 
mercy, consented to let him go at the end of the third day." " Neverthe- 



39 

less," said tte gentleman, "it is a pity you did not force him to answer on 
the subject of his plan." "There was no use in it at all," was the reply. 
" There is nothing to the man, and he never will be called to a command 
again 1" So much for Little Mac ! 



KY., March 14, 1863. 
Thk Incompetency of MoClellan. — A Settler. — Since our last, General 
Hooker has been summoned again before the Committee on the Conduct of 
the "War, and given in some further valuable testimony. The first interroga- 
tory propounded to him on this occasion was, as to what cause he attributed 
the failure of the campaign on the Peninsula? "Whereupon, he seriously 
said — ".4s I am on oatJi^ I must answer the question. The failure of that 
movement was owing to the incompetency of the Commanding GeneraV 
Poor Phil. Kearney, now in his grave, from having been sacrificed at Chan- 
tilly, by the sullen treason of the McClellan generals, frequently said and 
wrote the same thing. Do the soldiers, who sigh in vain for the thousands 
of their comrades who passed out of life, through the fingerg of the mock 
Napoleon, or the public who have counted the army he took into the Penin- 
sula with the one he brouglit out of it, need any higher authority than this, 
to support their own verdict on results? Thus ends the career of thia 
boasted child of genius. Thus terminates the worship of this muddy idol. 
Thus winds up the final verse of tuneful journalists, who imagined the hero 
of the Chickahominy was good timber for a political campaign. Poor 
Little Mac, he is measured and gauged, labeled and laid down ; and again 
we say, whoever wants him for a hero can freely have him ! 



THE CONSERVATIVE PLOT. 



LORD LYONS VERIFIES OUR ARTICLES. 



Office of "Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, } 
New York, March 30th, 1863. \ 

Patience pays a high percentage. Next to courage, it commands the 
crowning premium; and if backed by that quality, while supported on either 
side by sense and singleness of purpose, must ultimately win its points. 

We embraced an arduous task, when, fourteen months ago, we undertook 
to unravel the mysterious movements of our armies ; but when it became our 
duty to develop the designs of Seward and of Fitz Napoleon, we felt that the 
labor had assumed its most herculean shape. Nevertheless, we grappled with 
it; and, presently, the demonstrations which at first shocked the affectionate 
confidence of the community, penetrated the appreciations of the loyal, and 
in due time, the little earthen idol, which had so long absorbed their gaze, 
tumbled from its pedestal. 

But, while we exposed Little Mac as we went along, we at the same time 
demonstrated that he was only an incident in a complicated plot, the object of 
which was to turn the edge of the Federal sword from the insurgents, and 
hold it ineffectively, until both parties were so equally exhausted that peace 
could be restored, on terms quite liberal to the South, and the eclat and ad- 
vantages of the settlement, enure to a chosen handful of political adventurers. 

Mr. Seward was the engineer of this famous plan, and having been fortu- 
nate enough to fall upon a General, who was by no means a model, either of 
courage or patriotism, he imagined he coold carry his vain idea to a success- 
ful culmination. Keflecting, however, that the Eepublican party, having 
been identifi«d with the earliest stages of the war, could not retain its ascend- 



40 

ancy, unless it finished it by arms, Mr. Seward concluded that it would be 
necessary to cut tliat party adrift. Having squared his mind to sacrifice the 
true interests of liis country, this minor treason dwelt but lightly on his con- 
science. With but few qualms, therefore, he set about the constrnction of a 
half-way house, or " conservative" hostelry, from which he might gallop hand- 
ily into the ranks of the opposition. 

If there be any one to dispute the philosophy and details of the plot we 
have thus continuously developed, we refer to the unexpected revelations 
found in the letter of Lord Lyons, of November 17th. By this letter, which 
is a State paper written to the British Government, it appears that his lord- 
ship came to New York shortly after the late Fall elections, and that, im- 
mediately on his arrival here, he was eagerly sought by tlie leaders of the 
Conservative party — who, by-the-bye, his lordship identifies with those 
pretended leaders of the Democratic party, who are known by the designa- 
tion of " the Copperheads." His lordship states, that he found those leaders 
rejoicing over the result of the Fall elections, and though they had conducted 
them, before the people, to the tune of a vigorous prosecution of the war, 
they thought the President would be induced, by the results, not to push the 
war to extremity. This strange deduction inferred that the President was a 
rogue; and that though he understood the verdict, he would be willing to award 
the fruits of victory only to the rascals who had cajoled the vote, instead of the 
honest majority who cast it. Never was plot to cheat the People more complete 
than this ; but it reveals, that the reliance of the traitors was not upon the 
President (who was not in the plot), but upon Seward, who understood the 
game, and who knew how to apply the moves. 

Lord Lyons goes on to say, that these treacherous democratic leaders 
talked with him freely on the subject of mediation^ and hoped it would be 
suspended on the part of foreign governments until the new " conservative" 
party should be in power ; that, if tendered prematurely^ it would but serve 
" to inflame the war spirit, and produce a reaction against the conservatives ;" 
but they intimated that when they should have possession of the Govern- 
ment, mediation would not be unacceptable, and that, through it, either a 
union peace, or a quiet separation could be easily obtained.* 

His lordship further states, on the authority of these conversations, that 
the removal of McOlellan had struck these Copperhead leaders with conster- 
nation. That " he had been regarded as the representative of ' Conservative' 
principles in the army (to wit : those principles which agreed ' not to push 
the war'), and that the ' supporting of him, had been made one of the articles 
of the Conservative electoral programme.'" 

We now direct attention to thf letter of Lord Lyons itself. It will be 
found to confirm every position we have taken for the last twelve months in 
regard to the mutual policy of Seward and McClellan ; and it ought to inspire 
the People to demand, that the already accomplished removal of the one, 
should be followed now, by the expulsion of the other. 

The object of the Conservative cabal, headed by these two men, is to 
betray the North into a base and degrading composition with the slave lords 
of the South ; and we may reasonably fear, that the Minister who could aban- 
don his principles and betray his party, is quite capable of entangling the first 
step of triumph, with the meshes of some base condition. 

* It is curious to note, that in these conferences, which the conservative loaders, thus 
instituted with the Minister of an inimical foreign government, and the object of which was to see 
liow they could best betray their country, both sides constantly admitted the fact that the People of 
the United States were sound on the prosecution of the war; and their greatest concern was, how 
they could most successfully deceive them. It will be noted, also, that Lyons, enlightened by these 
conversations, advised Earl Russell against early mediation; that the British Government and the 
Loudon Times at once dropped that policy as being advantageous to the North ; and that Mr. Seward, 
the inventor of the " Conservative Party," soon afterwards rejected the French offer, with as great 
a show of indignation, as if it were not in accordance with the conservative programme. 



^yn^/yi 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

DQ02t.EDS30A 



